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:
“Think of all the really successful men and women you know. Do you know a single one who didn’t learn very young the trick of calling attention to himself in the right quarters?”
—Storm Jameson (1891–1986)
“Developing the muscles of the soul demands no competitive spirit, no killer instinct, although it may erect pain barriers that the spiritual athlete must crash through.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.
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—George Orwell (1903–1950)