Most Successful Athlete in Each Sport
This table includes medals for both individual and team events. Currently active competitors are highlighted in pale green.
- Men
| Category | Sport | Athlete | Born | Tot. | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bicycle racing | Cycling (road) | Fabian Cancellara | 1981 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| Óscar Freire | 1976 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |||
| Eddy Merckx | 1945 | |||||||
| Rik Van Steenbergen | 1924-2003 | |||||||
| Alfredo Binda | 1902-1986 | |||||||
| Cycling (track) | Arnaud Tournant | 1978 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 19 | ||
| BMX racing | Randy Stumpfhauser | 1977 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 | ||
| Mountain bike racing | Julien Absalon | 1980 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| Combat sports | Boxing | Félix Savón | 1967 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| Judo | Teddy Riner | 1989 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 7 | ||
| Taekwondo | Steven López | 1978 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| Wrestling | Aleksandr Karelin | 1967 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | ||
| Motor sports | Formula One | Michael Schumacher | 1969 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 12 | |
| Motorboat racing | Guido Cappellini | 1959 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 14 | ||
| Motorcycle racing | Giacomo Agostini | 1942 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 21 | ||
| Motocross | Stefan Everts | 1972 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 13 | ||
| Rallying | Sébastien Loeb | 1974 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 | ||
| Roller sports | Inline speed skating | Chad Hedrick | 1977 | 50 | 14 | 4 | 68 | |
| Roller artistic skating | Roberto Riva | 1986 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 11 | ||
| Water sports | Swimming | Michael Phelps | 1985 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 33 | |
| Diving | Dmitri Sautin | 1974 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 9 | ||
| Canoe sprint | Ivan Patzaichin | 1974 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 22 | ||
| Rowing | Daniele Gilardoni | 1976 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||
| Sailing | Paul Elvstrøm | 1928 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 15 | ||
| Winter sports | Alpine skiing | Kjetil André Aamodt | 1971 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 | |
| Biathlon | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 1974 | 18 | 11 | 9 | 38 | ||
| Bobsleigh | Eugenio Monti | 1928-2003 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 | ||
| Skeleton | Gregor Stähli | 1968 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 | ||
| Luge | Armin Zöggeler | 1974 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 16 | ||
| Cross-country skiing | Bjørn Dæhlie | 1967 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 19 | ||
| Ski jumping | Janne Ahonen | 1977 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | ||
| Nordic combined | Bjarte Engen Vik | 1971 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8 | ||
| Freestyle skiing | Edgar Grospiron | 1969 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Snowboarding | Jasey Jay Anderson | 1968 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| Figure skating | Ulrich Salchow | 1877-1949 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 14 | ||
| Speed skating | Sven Kramer | 1986 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 19 | ||
| Short track speed skating | Ahn Hyun-Soo | 1985 | 20 | 11 | 4 | 35 | ||
| Olympic sports | Athletics | Carl Lewis | 1961 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |
| Archery | Richard McKinney | 1953 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Artistic Gymnastics | Vitaly Scherbo | 1972 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 23 | ||
| Badminton | Park Joo-bong | 1964 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Equestrian | Reiner Klimke | 1936-1999 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| Fencing | Aladár Gerevich | 1910-1991 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 18 | ||
| Shooting | Konrad Stäheli | 1866-1931 | 41 | 17 | 10 | 67 | ||
| Table tennis | Viktor Barna | 1911-1972 | 22 | 7 | 12 | 41 | ||
| Tennis | Ivan Lendl | 1960 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 11 | ||
| Triathlon | Simon Lessing | 1971 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| Weightlifting | Naim Süleymanoğlu | 1967 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| Team sports | Baseball | Pedro Luis Lazo | 1973 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| Basketball | Krešimir Ćosić | 1948-1995 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | ||
| Beach volleyball | Emanuel Rego | 1973 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Curling | Randy Ferbey | 1959 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| Field hockey | Akhtar Rasool | 1954 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | ||
| Handball | Didier Dinart | 1977 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Ice Hockey | Vladislav Tretiak | 1914-1992 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 13 | ||
| Football | Pelè | 1942 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Volleyball | Marco Bracci Andrea Gardini Andrea Giani Ferdinando De Giorgi |
1966 1965 1970 1961 |
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Waterpolo | Salvador Gómez Jesús Rollán |
1968 1968-2006 |
2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
Read more about this topic: World Championship
Famous quotes containing the words successful, athlete and/or sport:
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“It is odd that the NCAA would place a school on probation for driving an athlete to class, or providing a loan, but would have no penalty for a school that violates Title IX, a federal law.”
—Cardiss L. Collins (b. 1931)
“Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)