Michael Phelps is an American swimmer widely regarded as the most decorated Olympian of all time, having won twenty-eight Olympic medals across five Olympic Games (2000–2016), including twenty-three golds. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he won eight gold medals in a single Games, a record no other athlete has matched. His combination of powerful technique, long wingspan, and relentless training let him dominate multiple swimming events at once. He is remembered as one of the greatest athletes in the history of the Olympics.