Swimming is one of the best activities to stay fit and active in our lifestyle. Here are some professionals who have taken swimming to the next level through their talent.
Every year champions emerge in the Olympics who set higher goals for the whole world. Here are some professionals who have made unbreakable records for themselves that inspire us for generations.
Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitz, well known by his nickname, "Mark The Shark," won seven golds in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Only Michael Phelps, who claimed eight gold medals in 2008, has a more impressive medal haul. Spitz won a total of 31 US Amateur Athletic Union championships and 8 US National Collegiate Athletic Association championships between 1968 and 1972, in addition to his nine Olympic gold medals, two silver medals, and two bronze medals. Throughout that time frame, he broke 33 records around the globe. In 1969, 1971, and 1972, he was recognized as the best swimmer in the world.
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps, often known as The Baltimore Bullet, won a total of 16 Olympic medals throughout his career. They include eight gold medals at Beijing 2008 and six gold medals at Athens 2004. By doing so, he has tied Alexander Dityatin, a Soviet gymnast, for the all-time record of eight medals in a single Olympics, set at the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Vitaly Scherbo 1992 matched Eric Heiden's record of five gold medals from the 1980 Winter Olympics, and he also tied that record in 1992.
Ian Thorpe
Known as the Thorpedo and Thorpey during his career, Australian freestyle swimmer Ian James Thorpe is now retired. He holds the record for most Olympic gold medals won by an Australian athlete and he set a new record in the 2001 World Aquatics Championships by becoming the first candidate to win six gold medals. When it comes to swimming, Thorpe has the second-highest total of any athlete, with eleven gold medals at the World Championships.
Aleksandr Popov
Olympic gold medalist and one of the best sprint freestyle swims of all time, Aleksandr Vladimirovich Popov is from Russia. In addition to his four gold and five silver medals from the Olympics, he also has six gold, 4 silver, or one bronze medal from the World Championships, and a whopping twenty-one gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals from the European Championships.
Pieter van den Hoogenband
Three-time Olympic gold medalist and Dutch swimmer Pieter Cornelis Ruud Martijn van den Hoogenband is known by his nicknames, The Flying Dutchman and Hoogie. There at age of 18, he became an Olympian, and he finished his career with three gold, ten silver, & four bronze medals.
Johnny Weissmuller
American swimmer & actor Johann Peter Weimar was born in Austro-Hungary. Weissmuller won six Olympic medals in the 1920s, five in swimming and one in diving. He broke 67 world records and won 52 US National Championships. After retiring from swimming, he played Tarzan for the sixth time in a total of twelve films.
Grant Hackett
Grant Hackett, a former swimmer from Australia, is most known for his back-to-back victories in the men's 1500-meter freestyle event at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. As a result of this feat, he is now considered to be one of the best distance swimmers ever. Gold in the 4—200 m freestyle relay was another of his Sydney accomplishments.
