Featured image credit: PA Images
Everyone and their nan knows the name Michael Phelps. He's a fucking machine. But just how good is he?
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If Team USA just had Phelps and no other Olympians for the whole time the team's been included in the Games - it'd currently be sitting at 40th place. 40th... ever! This is if you're just counting the golds. He won his first gold in Athens in 2004 (he won six of them then), so he's had over a century of playing catch up with other nations, too.
The Independent reported that after he and his teammates (Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas, and Ryan Lochte) won gold in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, his total now stands at 21 gold medals. He also has two silvers and two bronze.
Even though there's only 39 countries ahead of him, some of them don't even exist anymore. Phelps has outlived the likes of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the United Team of Germany.
The 189 countries (past and present) behind him are probably feeling pretty sheepish right now.
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Here's the full list of the countries trailing behind him.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Aruba
- Australasia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- KEEP SCROLLING
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belize
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bhutan
- Bohemia
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- British Virgin Islands
- British West Indies
- Brunei
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Congo
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- KEEP SCROLLING
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Fiji
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Iceland
- Independent Olympic Participants
- India
- Individual Olympic Athletes
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Ivory Coast
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kiribati
- Kuwait
- KEEP SCROLLING
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaya
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Mixed team
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands Antilles
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- North Borneo
- North Korea
- North Yemen
- Oman
- KEEP SCROLLING
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestine
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of China
- Russian Empire
- Rwanda
- Saar
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Serbia and Montenegro
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- Somaliland
- South Sudan
- South Yemen
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Swaziland
- Syria
- Taipei
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- United Arab Emirates
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Virgin Islands
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Come on, people. It's time to step it up.
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Words by Mel Ramsay
Featured Image Credit:Topics: rio, olympics, rio 2016