For me its Michael Phelps. By winning his 8th gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps clearly surpassed Mark Spitz as the greatest olympic swimmer of all time. Indeed, Phelps is probably the greatest olympian of all-time. And, why not? He's won more olympic medals and more olympic golds than anyone ever. Ever. To get the 8 at the 2008 Olympics, he had to swim in 17 races over 8 days. He set 7 world records in those 8 days. Endurance has been the key to it. How close the records Spitz and Phelps set are. Spitz: 7 gold medals in one olympic games. Phelps: 8. Spitz: 26 world records. Phelps: 27, it goes on and on. The thing that really separates Michael Phelps from Mark Spitz is Phelps' is his longevity. This will be the 4th Olympics Phelps would be participating. In 2000 at Sydney, Phelps didn't get any medals but he swam the 200 meter butterfly and came in 5th place which was just at the age of 15. However, at the Athens Olympics in 2004 Phelps won 8 medals; 6 golds; 2 bronze!!

Phelps