Male Swimmers

The most decorated and successful Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps is a former competitive swimmer who has won a total of 28 Olympic medals. He is widely considered one of the greatest athletes ever and the greatest swimmer of all time. He has several world records and Olympic records under his belt.

Swimmer Ryan Lochte has won 12 Olympic medals, including six golds, and is the joint-second-most-decorated swimmer in the history of Olympics. He is known for his expertise in freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and individual categories. He was suspended for vandalism while in Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Olympic gold medalist South African swimmer Chad le Clos, who plays for the club Energy Standard, also holds records in the 50- and 100-m butterfly categories in the Commonwealth Games. He is one of his nation’s most-decorated Olympians but failed to get a medal in the 2020 Olympics.

Caeleb Dressel is an American swimmer. A seven-time Olympic gold medalist, Dressel became the fifth American to win five or more gold medals in a single Olympic event since 1970 when he won five gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He also holds world records in the 50 meter freestyle, 100 meter butterfly, and 100 meter individual medley.

Rowdy Gaines is an American swimming analyst for NBC and retired competitive swimmer. Gaines won three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He also won five gold medals at the FINA World Championships before becoming an analyst; he has covered swimming events at the Olympics since 1992. Rowdy Gaines is a member of the US Olympic Hall of Fame.

Best known for winning 7 gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Mark Spitz has been one of the most successful swimmers of all time. After retiring at then tender age of 22, he tried his luck I the entertainment world, appearing on shows such as Emergency!

Three-time Olympic gold medal-winning Australian swimmer Grant Hackett is a master of freestyle swimming. He also captained the Australian swimming team for a while. Apart from holding several freestyle world records, he also came to be known as the King of the 1500m. He has also worked as a sports presenter.

Initially interested in both swimming and water polo, Matt Biondi participated in his first swimming race at age 5. One of the greatest swimmers of all time, he has won 11 Olympic medals, of which 8 are gold medals. Post-retirement, he teaches math and works as a swimming coach in Hawaii.  

Sun Yang is a Chinese competitive swimmer best known for winning three Olympic gold medals. Sun has also won 11 FINA World Championships and nine gold medals at Asian Games. Sun is the first man in the history of competitive swimming to win the World Championship and Olympic gold medals at every single freestyle distance between 200 and 1500 meters.

Nathan Adrian is an American swimmer who helped his team win a gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Adrian then went on to win gold medals in the 4×100-meter medley relay and the 100-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the 2016 Olympics, he once again helped his team win a gold medal.

Apart from winning 8 Olympic medals, of which 4 were gold medals, Jason Lezak also showed a keen interest in other sports such as basketball, water polo, and soccer, in his initial days. Post-retirement, he and his wife, fellow Olympian Danielle DeAlva began coaching children. He is also a motivational speaker.

Swimmer Aaron Peirsol has 7 Olympic medals in his kitty, of which 5 are gold medals. The political science major enjoys surfing, too. An environmentalist, he also teamed up with Oceana to work for the Race for the Oceans campaign. His interests also include blues music, and he is already planning an album.

Johnny Weissmuller was an American swimmer and actor. Although Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and set several world records during his illustrious swimming career, he is best remembered for his portrayal of the title role in the 1932 action-adventure film Tarzan the Ape Man. In 1965, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Backstroke and freestyle specialist Matt Grevers has won numerous medals in his kitty, including 4 Olympic gold medals. He also made headlines when a video of him proposing to his girlfriend, fellow national swimming team member Annie Chandler, at the 2012 Missouri Grand Prix, went viral.

Duke Kahanamoku was an American competitive swimmer and surfer. He is credited with popularizing the ancient Hawaiian surfing. As a swimmer, Kahanamoku won three gold medals in two different Olympics. Kahanamoku was inducted into both the Surfing Hall of Fame and International Swimming Hall of Fame. He has been also inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.

One of Australia’s best-known distance swimmers, Kieren Perkins is also known to fans as the Superfish. Apart from breaking 11 world records, he also became the first person to simultaneously hold the World, Olympic, Commonwealth, and Pan Pacific titles. The 2-time Olympic gold medalist later became the CEO of the Australian Sports Commission.

Ian Thorpe is an Australian retired swimmer who won five Olympic gold medals. He predominantly competed in freestyle but was also skilled at backstroke and the individual medley. He emerged as the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics, with three gold and two silver medals. He is openly gay and often talks about the challenges of being homosexual. 

Shavarsh Karapetyan is an Armenian former finswimmer. A ten-time world record-breaker, Karapetyan became famous after the 1976 trolleybus incident in Yerevan, where he saved the lives of 20 people. The incident was published in an article titled The Underwater Battle of the Champion in 1982, making Shavarsh Karapetyan a household name in the USSR.

Eamon Sullivan is an Australian retired sprint swimmer and former world record holder. He is best known for his performance in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, where he won two silver medals and one bronze medal. Eamon Sullivan also won two gold medals at the World Championships and three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games during his career.

Michael Klim is a Polish-born Australian competitive swimmer and former world record holder. He is best known for winning two gold medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Michael Klim has also won seven gold medals in the long course and five gold medals in the short course so far in the World Championships. 

Murray Rose was an Australian swimmer, sports commentator, actor, and marketing executive. A former world record holder, Rose is best remembered for winning three gold medals at the 1956 Olympic Games. He also won a gold medal, a silver medal, and a bronze medal at the 1960 Olympic Games. In 2001, Murray Rose was honored with the prestigious Centenary Medal.

Five-time Olympic gold medalist Don Schollander was introduced to swimming by his swimmer uncle. Though initially interested in football, he later chose swimming as a career option. Post-retirement, he has penned books and has launched a real-estate company. He was also part of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones.

John Naber is an American retired competitive swimmer, sports broadcaster, writer, and motivational speaker. Naber won four gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. A former world record-holder, Naber was honored with the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award in 1977. In 1982, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Apart from winning 10 Olympic medals, including 5 golds, Gary Hall Jr. is also known for his battle with Type 1 diabetes. He was born into a family of Olympic swimmers and was known for his signature boxer-like gestures he resorted to prior to every contest. He also survived a shark attack.

Tom Dolan is an American retired competitive swimmer who won gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. A former world record-holder, Dolan was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2009, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. After retiring from competitive swimming, Dolan founded the Tom Dolan Swim School.

Widely known as the deepest man on Earth, Austrian freediver Herbert Nitsch currently holds the world freediving world record for his exceptional dive of 214 m. He has previously also worked as a pilot. He is also the only diver to hold records in all of AIDA's 8 freediving disciplines.

Olympic bronze-winning Australian swimmer Justin Norris is known for his mastery in the butterfly and individual medley categories and for his catchphrase, “I’m stoked.” He won three golds at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He is the father of Sabre Norris and her siblings from the YouTube channel The Norris Nuts.

Roland Matthes was a German swimmer famous as the most successful backstroke swimmer of all time. He swam 19 world and 21 European records in various backstroke,  freestyle, butterfly, and medley events between April 1967 and August 1974. After retiring from swimming, he studied medicine at the University of Jena and became an orthopedic surgeon.

Bulgarian actor, talent-manager, filmmaker and former pro-swimmer Julian Kostov became 10-time National Swimming Champion and received Master of Sport title in Swimming. As an actor Kostov has appeared in different films and series including starring in the film Another Mother's Son. He plays recurring role in Netflix series Shadow and Bone. He founded the production and talent-management company JupiterLights Productions.