Who Has the Most Olympic Medals of All Time?

Find out which individual athletes and countries have the most medals of all time since the modern Games began in 1896.

Since 1980, more than 100 events have been added to the Summer Olympics. This year's Games, which is set to officially start in Tokyo with the opening ceremony on July 23, will feature 339 events across 33 sports. Five new sports—sport climbing, karate, surfing, 3x3 basketball and skateboarding—are set to debut. 

But before we take in this year's events, let's take a look back at past Games and see which Olympians have racked up the most medals of all time.

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps leads all Olympians with 28 medals—23 gold, three silver and two bronze. After Phelps, the next closest athletes in medal counts are Soviet Union gymnast Larisa Latynina (18), Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen—the most decorated Winter Olympian—(15) and Soviet Union gymnast Nikolai Andrianov (15).

Not only does Phelps have the most medals of all time, he has also won more individual events (16 medals—13 gold, two silver and one bronze) than any other Olympian. Only 35 athletes in Olympic history—including nine Americans—have 10 or more Olympic medals.

Forde: There Is Still Chlorine in Michael Phelps’s Soul

Phelps, who retired after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, will be an Olympic spectator at the Tokyo Games for the first time in 25 years as he's turned his focus toward fatherhood and mental health advocacy.

Dating back to 1896 and the first modern Olympics, the United States has collected the most Summer Olympics medals with 2,542. Behind the U.S. is the Soviet Union (1,010), Great Britain (867), Germany (760), France (739), Italy (532), China (546), Sweden (498), Hungary and Australia (495) and Japan (441).  

The Tokyo Summer Games will run through Aug. 8. The Paralympics will be held from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.