/Michael Phelps in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle swimming relay final. Reuters/
Tied with Leonidas with 12 Olympic titles, Phelps will have a chance to break the record on Thursday when he swims the 200 individual medley race. Phelps has a total of 21 Olympic gold medals, but nine have come in relays. There were no relays in Leonidas’s day — nor was there competitive swimming — so it’s impossible to know his true Olympic potential. Historians suggest he was pretty good.
Times have changed, and Phelps passed the modern mark eight years ago when he bested Ray Ewry’s record of eight Olympic titles. Ewry was a track and field athlete who competed in the 1900, ’04 and ’08 Olympics — winning titles in the high jump, the long jump and the triple jump.ICYMI, Leonidas won the stadion, diaulos, and hoplite race at the 164-160-156-152 BC Ancient Olympic Games. 4 consecutive in 3 diff events— Bill Mallon (@bambam1729) August 10, 2016
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