Top 10 inspirational swimmers in swimming history
Swimming remained one of the most exciting sports across the globe. We all love to enjoy the thrill of watching any swimming events with so much interest. This sport helped many global swimmers make an established place in the world of sports and also earn handsome money as their salary. In this context, we are aiming to share with you, the list of top 10 inspirational swimmers in history. These swimmers inspired many to take up swimming as a sport with a lot of potential to display.
Check out our list of Top 10 inspirational swimmers in swimming history (It contains the names of both male and female swimmers):
Janet Evans
She is an inspiration for many female sportswomen who wish to be part of the swimming world. Janet’s expertise was long-distance swimming and earned several records in her kitty. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she was the one to create a record in the category of 400m freestyle. The record remained unbeatable for about eighteen years. She also bagged gold in 800m freestyle and 400m medley. Being the winner of a total of 5 Olympic medals Evans got the chance to carry the torch to hand over to Muhammad Ali in the 1996 Olympics.
Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitz bagged seven gold medals Munich Olympic Games. From 1968 and 1972, Mark won nine Olympic gold medals in addition to silver and also bronze. He also earned five Pan American gold medals, apart from 31 titles in US Amateur Athletic Union followed by eight more in US National Collegiate Athletic Association. In his tenure as a professional swimmer, he set brilliant 33 world records. He was honored with the title of World Swimmer of the Year in years 1969, 1971 as well as in 1972.
Matt Biondi
Matt Biondi is one of the former and celebrated American champion swimmers. He won eleven- Olympic medals and was also a former world record-holder for five individual events.
Biondi, remained a participant in the Summer Olympic Games for the years: 1984, 1988, and 1992. Matt’s 11 medals from the Olympics include 8 gold medals, 2 silvers, and 1 bronze. Biondi, a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame, is also member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Kristin Otto
With fractured vertebra in 1985 made it a tough struggle for Otto to remain in top form. But this German swimmer kicked up all challenges and made her show in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Right there she entered her name in the list of best swimmers in world records.
The 6 medals that she earned in the 1988 Olympics were all golds. With this achievement, she emerged as the first female swimmer to win 6 golds in 1 solo edition of the Olympics.
Otto created world records in every category she participated in 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, and also in 100m butterfly events. She announced her retirement from swimming in 1989
Ryan Lochte
Despite behaving like a fool at the Rio 2016 and getting into arguments with the American press, we cannot deny the fact that Lochte is one of the iconic swimmers in this sport’s history.
Ryan marked world records in categories 100-meter, 200-metre, and 400-meter individual medleys. He managed to give tough competition to competitor American Michael Phelps in his peak years, as a professional swimmer. Ryan earned seven medals in the individual category in Olympics 2016. He made an outstanding collection of 12 medals from the Olympics.
Ian Thorpe
Ian James Thorpe is now a retired freestyle swimmer from Australia. He bagged five Olympic gold medals, the maximum by any Australian. In World Aquatics Championships 2001, he was the first candidate to bag six gold medals from one season of the World Championship.
In total he earned eleven golds from World Championship, the second-highest number of any swimmer. Thorpe is the first candidate who claimed Swimming World Swimmers of the Year 4 times. His swimming achievements enlisted him as the most popular athlete in Australia, and he won the title of Young Australian of the Year in 2000.
Dara Torres
Torres made her comeback after staying seven years away from the world of sport in Sydney in 2000. Left the International Aquatic Centre bagging two gold medals and three bronze. In Summer Olympics in Beijing 2008, she broke the record of Britain’s William Robinson as the oldest swimmer to grab a medal in Olympics. Dara was 41 then.
Her achievement statistics show twelve Olympic medals and 4 each gold, silver, and bronze. Dara is one such swimmer in the history of this sport who won at least one medal, in 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. She proved with her performance that age is just a number.
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps bagged 16 Olympic medals, of which six gold and two bronze were from Athens in 2004, and the remaining eight gold medals he bagged at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Phelps holds the record for winning maximum gold medals in a single season of the Olympics.
He made this record by breaking American swimmer Mark Spitzâ’s record of seven gold in the 1972 Olympics. In his career, he bagged fifty-nine medals in international competitions. Michel is a true inspiration for the budding and upcoming swimmers in the sports world.
Natalie Coughlin
By bagging 12 Olympic medals, Natalie tied the tally with fellow swimmers Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres to hold the top position in the list of most-decorated female American Olympians. In Beijing 2008, she emerged as the first woman swimmer to defend the title in the 10 m backstroke category after her previous victory in Athens 2004 in the same segment. She deserves a place on this list of inspirational swimmers in history.
Aleksandr Popov
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Popov is our next swimmer on the list. He is a Russian former Olympic gold-winning swimmer. Popov is regarded to be the finest sprint freestyle swimmer in the history of this sport. He bagged four gold medals followed by five silver medals at the Olympic Games. Aleksandr also won six golds, four silver, and a bronze medal in the World Championship, with 21 gold, three silver, and two bronze medals from European Championships.
Apart from the above 10 most inspirational swimmers in history, there are many more who inspired us.