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:
“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“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)