2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
- Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
- La Défense Arena — Paris, France
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Caeleb Dressel of the US keeps making history this week. He already won his 8th gold helping the American men to the win in the 4×100 freestyle relay. Tonight, he won his 9th gold with as the USA mixed medley relay swam to gold in the final. Dressel notably did not race in finals, but swam the butterfly leg in yesterday’s prelims to earn the gold.
Dressel now sits tied for 2nd in all-time gold medals, sitting only behind Michael Phelps who won 23 golds across five Olympic Games.
His first nine medals of his career have notably all been gold. He also has the potential to move up to 10 gold medals all time, which would break the tie, as he also has the chance to compete on the men’s 4×100 medley relay with the final schedule for tomorrow night. He did not swim on the relay during this morning’s prelims session and was the fastest flyer for the US in Paris.
All 9 of Dressel’s Olympic medals are gold, which surpasses Usain Bolt’s 8-0-0 tally. Ray Ewry, an American runner who competed on the US Olympic Teams in 1900, 1904, and 1908 in the standing long jump, high jump, and triple jump, also is 8-0-0. Prior to Michael Phelps in 2008, Ewry held the record for the most individual Olympic gold medals for 100 years.
Unlike Bolt and Ewry, though, Dressel’s 9 gold medals are not from just 9 events. Dressel’s lone blemishes are from the mixed 400 medley relay in Tokyo that placed 5th, the individual 100 free at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where he placed 6th, the individual 50 free and individual 100 fly in Paris.
Dressel notably is the 2nd American to earn their 9th career gold medal tonight as Katie Ledecky did so as well, winning the women’s 800 freestyle.
Dressel’s Medal Count
| Olympics | Event | Medal |
| 2016 Rio | Men’s 4×100 free relay | Gold |
| 2016 Rio | Men’s 4×100 medley relay | Gold |
| 2020 Tokyo | 50 free | Gold |
| 2020 Tokyo | 100 free | Gold |
| 2020 Tokyo | 100 fly | Gold |
| 2020 Tokyo | Men’s 4×100 free relay | Gold |
| 2020 Tokyo | Men’s 4×100 medley relay | Gold |
| 2024 Paris | Men’s 4×100 free relay | Gold |
| 2024 Paris | Mixed 4×100 mixed medley relay | Gold |
OLYMPIC ATHLETES WITH 8 OR MORE GOLD MEDALS
| NO. | ATHLETE | NATION | SPORT | YEARS | GAMES | GENDER | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
| 1 | Michael Phelps | United States | Swimming | 2004–2016 | Summer | M | 23 | 3 | 2 | 28 |
| 2 | Larisa Latynina | Soviet Union | Gymnastics | 1956–1964 | Summer | F | 9 | 5 | 4 | 18 |
| 3 | Katie Ledecky | United States | Swimming | 2012-2024 | Summer | F | 9 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| 4 | Paavo Nurmi | Finland | Athletics | 1920–1928 | Summer | M | 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| 5 | Mark Spitz | United States | Swimming | 1968–1972 | Summer | M | 9 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| 6 | Carl Lewis | United States | Athletics | 1984–1996 | Summer | M | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| 7 | Caeleb Dressel | United States | Swimming | 2016-2024 | Summer | M | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 8 | Marit Bjørgen | Norway | Cross-country skiing | 2002–2018 | Winter | F | 8 | 4 | 3 | 15 |
| 9 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | Norway | Biathlon | 1998–2014 | Winter | M | 8 | 4 | 1 | 13 |
| 10 | Bjørn Dæhlie | Norway | Cross-country skiing | 1992–1998 | Winter | M | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| 11 | Birgit Fischer | East Germany/Germany | Canoeing | 1980-2004 | Summer | F | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| 12 | Sawao Kato | Japan | Gymnastics | 1968–1976 | Summer | M | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 13 | Jenny Thompson | United States | Swimming | 1992–2004 | Summer | F | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 14 | Matt Biondi | United States | Swimming | 1984–1992 | Summer | M | 8 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 15 | Usain Bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 2008–2016 | Summer | M | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 16 | Ray Ewry | United States | Athletics | 1900–1908 | Summer | M | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
Those who are trashing Caeleb should remember that on the all-time US swimmer medals list, Torres and Thompson never won an individual gold, Coughlin only won 2 and Lochte only won 2, so if we are weighting the list with individual golds Dressed is behind only Phelps, Ledecky and Spitz and Evans, who each have 4 individual golds. On the total US Swimming medals list he is 2nd and on the total individual US medalists list he is 5th (based upon the convention of putting those with the most golds at the top). Not bad IMO, and definitely among good company in US Swimming history! Plus, the fact is that the sport of swimming puts BIG emphasis on relays, and… Read more »
Agree.
Moreover, those who are trashing Caeleb never won any golds, and don’t know what they’re talking about generally.
We need a medal table for individual prelims only swimmers. Most likely dominated by Americans.
I believe just one of Phelps’ 23 gold was prelims only. 2004 medley relay?
I’m compiling one !
Updated ranking of every swimmer with at least 2 medals from prelim swims :
Ashley Tappin 🥇🥇🥇
Tom Jagger 🥇🥇🥇
➡ Abbey Weitzel 🥇🥇🥈
➡ Blake Pieroni 🥇🥇🥈
Madison Wilson 🥇🥇🥈
Matt Grevers 🥇 🥇 🥈
Mollie O’Callaghan 🥇🥇🥉
➡ Caeleb Dressel 🥇🥇
Emily Seebohm 🥇🥇
Felicity Galvez 🥇🥇
Lisa Jacob 🥇🥇
Mark Gangloff 🥇🥇
Neil Walker 🥇🥇
Shaun Jordan 🥇🥇
Tom Shields 🥇🥇
Adam Pine 🥇🥈🥈
➡ Alex Shackell 🥇🥈
➡ Brooks Curry 🥇🥈
➡ Charlie Swanson 🥇🥈
Angie Bainbridge 🥇🥈
Betsy Mitchell🥇🥈
Hinkelien Schreuder🥇🥈
Jason Lezak🥇🥈
Jérémy Stravius🥇🥈
Jimmy Feigen🥇🥈
Josh Davis🥇🥈
… Read more »
Although that one was because he gave his spot up to Ian Crocker.
Brit Freya Anderson took Olympic gold for anchoring the heats of the Tokyo mixed medley. It’s well documented that she is conflicted about the meaning of the gold- and does not refer to herself as an Olympic gold medalist.
Swimmers have SO many more medal chances than the majority of other sports, it makes this kind of comparison meaningless. It’s unfair to rank an Olympic hockey player, for example, against a swimmer- which is what is happening when everyone goes on about Olympians with the most medals.
Also, comparing swimmers from relay nations against those who don’t have big teams makes it meaningless too. Leon won’t get many relay medals…. Popovici, Hosszu etc etc etc It’s a bit like comparing apples and pears
This stat-pad is hilarious and awesome. Bro either wins gold medals or makes sure he’s off the podium.
Mixed relays should never have been added, just adds fuel to the fire when debating that swimming has too many medal opportunities.
A top 100 freestyler from a powerhouse nation can theoretically take home 5 golds in one Olympics only swimming the 100 freestyle. That’s medal inflation if I ever saw it.
I agree. Same with the 50 strokes.
Obviously not Olympics but when including world champs
If we compare Swimming to Track and Field, I would say that the 50 events are like the 200, so saying that we should not have the 50 distances would be like saying to Track and Field that they should not have any race shorter than 400m.
While it’s obviously an incredible feat, the fact that 2/3 of the medals are relays does make this feel very different from Ledecky’s 9 golds. Focusing on individual golds/medals makes these lists significantly “fairer” and more insightful tbh. In that case Dressel ranks below the likes of De Bruijn, Thorpe, Kitajima, McKeown, etc, which seems accurate to me
I agree with one caveat. Dressel specifically in the 2020 Olympics was the reason those relays won Gold. Same can be said for Phelps in 2008 except for Lezak’s incredible 100 Free on 4×100. Same for Ledecky on the 800 Free Relay Gold she won.
But yes I would like to see just a list of individual Gold Medals. It would remove several USA swimmers.
Micky Mouse gold