Swimming · 2004 · Athens, Greece
Phelps Announces Himself
A 19-year-old Michael Phelps wins six gold and two bronze medals at his second Olympics, the performance that set up his run at Mark Spitz's record four years later.
8 (6 gold, 2 bronze)
Medals, Athens 2004
19
Age
5
World records set
Michael Phelps had competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a 15-year-old without reaching a final, but arrived in Athens in 2004 as the sport's most talked-about young star, chasing comparisons to Mark Spitz's seven-gold haul from 1972 before he had even raced.
He fell short of matching Spitz outright, winning six golds, the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly, and two relays, along with two bronze medals in events where teammates outswam him. Eight total medals from eight events was, even without matching Spitz's gold count, an extraordinary performance for a 19-year-old at his first full Games.
Athens 2004 was widely read as the launching point for what followed four years later in Beijing, where Phelps would go on to win eight golds in a single Games and finish his career as the most decorated Olympian in history. The 2004 performance is where that trajectory became unmistakable.
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