With six medals at the 2012 Olympic Games and 22 total Olympic medals, Michael Phelps has cemented himself as one of the greatest Olympians in history. He's not only the most-decorated Olympian of all time, but also the athlete with the most gold medals. He's one of the only swimmers to ever win the same event at three Olympic Games, and he'll go down in history as one of the most celebrated athletes in the sport.
Here's a quick look at each of Phelps' 22 swimming medals:
1) 400-meter individual medley, Athens 2004: Phelps defeated American teammate Erik Vendt and Hungarian László Cseh in the then-world record time of 4:08.26 to win gold.
2) 4x100-meter freestyle, Athens 2004: Swimming on a relay with Ian Crocker, Neil Walker and Jason Lezak, Phelps and his teammates earned bronze in a time of 3:14.62. They were defeated by South Africa and the Netherlands.
3) 200-meter freestyle, Athens 2004: Phelps finished in the bronze-medal position in a time of 1:45.32 behind Ina Thorpe of Australia and Pieter van den Hoogenbad of the Netherlands.
4) 200-meter butterfly, Athlens 2004: Phelps swam to a gold-medal time of 1:54.05 ahead of Takashi Yamamoto of Japan and Stephen Parry of Great Britain.
5) 4x200-meter freestyle relay, Athens 2004: Phelps and relay teammates Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay and Klete Keller swam to a time of 7:07.33 to win gold ahead of the Australian and Italian teams.
6) 200-meter individual medley, Athens 2004: Phelps won gold and broke the Olympic record in a time of 1:57.14. Lochte finished second, and George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago finished third.
7) 100-meter butterfly, Athens 2004: Phelps defeated Crocker by four-hundredths of a second to win the event in the Olympic-record time of 51.25.
8) 4x100-meter medley relay, Athens 2004: Phelps opted to give his butterfly spot up so Crocker could swim in the final. Phelps instead elected to swim the butterfly leg of the medley relay in the preliminary heats, which allowed him to leave the 2004 Games with his sixth gold medal.
9) 400-meter individual medley, Beijing 2008: Phelps beat out Lochte and Cseh to win gold in a world-record time of 4:03.84.
10) 4x100-meter freestyle relay, Beijing 2008: Phelps was a member of the relay team that included Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Lezak. In this race, Lezak famously chased down French sprinter Alain Bernard to keep Phelps' hopes of eight gold medals alive.
11) 200-meter freestyle, Beijing 2008: Phelps defeated South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan to win gold and set a new world record in a time of 1:42.96.
12) 200-meter butterfly, Beijing 2008: Phelps defeated Cseh to win gold and set yet another world record in a time of 1:52.03. The race gave Phelps his 10th gold medal, which gave him more gold medals than any other Olympian in history.
13) 4x200-meter freestyle relay, Beijing 2008: Phelps swam the first leg of the relay, which included Ricky Berens, Lochte and Vanderkaay. Together, the men set a world record of 6:58.56. Russia finished second and Australia finished third.
14) 200-meter individual medley, Beijing 2008: Phelps defeated Lochte and Cseh to win gold in a world-record time of 1:54.23.
15) 100-meter butterfly, Beijing 2008: Phelps out-touched Milorad Cavic of Serbia at the wall to win the butterfly event by one-hundredth of a second. The win gave Phelps his seventh gold medal of the 2008 Games.
16) 4x100-meter medley relay, Beijing 2008: Phelps teamed up with Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol and Lezak to win gold in a time of 3:29.34, setting a new world record in the process.
17) 4x100-meter freestyle relay, London 2012: Phelps swam the second leg of the relay to earn silver with teammates Jones, Lochte and Nathan Adrian. The Americans were defeated by the French, and the race marked the first silver for Lochte.
18) 200-meter butterfly, London 2012: Phelps finished second behind South African Chad Le Clos to earn the second silver medal of his career. Le Clos defeated Phelps by five-hundredths of a second.
19) 4x200-meter freestyle relay, London 2012: Phelps teamed up with Lochte, Berens and Conor Dwyer to win his first gold medal of the 2012 Games. The Americans defeated the French and the Chinese to win the event.
20) 200-meter individual medley, London 2012: Phelps swam to the wall ahead of Lochte to win a gold medal in a time of 1:54.27. The win made Phelps the first man in history to win three consecutive swimming events at the Olympic Games.
21) 100-meter butterfly, London 2012: Phelps repeated his three-peat when he won this event, defeating Le Clos in a time of 51.21.
22) 4x100-meter medley relay, London 2012: Together with Adrian, Hansen and Matt Grevers, Phelps closed out his Olympic career with a gold medal ahead of Japan and Australia.
Sandra Johnson was a competitive swimmer for more than 15 years before she began coaching. She is a longtime Olympic fan, and while working for the United States Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., she had the opportunity to immerse herself in the Olympic Movement. Follow her on Twitter: @SandraJohnson46.
