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We're almost there. Here at USA TODAY Sports' "250 for 250" headquarters, we're down to our final full list of the greatest home-grown athletes in American history. And just in time as the nation preps for its 250th Independence Day celebration on July 4.
While we might have thought we wouldn't get to the finish, that was never in doubt for the all-time great U.S. swimmers who made our list. And like the gymnasts who dominated the Summer Olympics' other glamour event, we're reaching new heights in our efforts to bring you the definitive list of our nation's all-time greats – or at least one worth arguing over.
With Michael Phelps and Simone Biles leading this installment, there's not a lot of room for argument at the top. But these swimmers, divers and gymnasts are among the most decorated international athletes the U.S. has ever produced. Read on to relive their exploits.
Through July 4, USA TODAY Sports is releasing our "250 for 250" list of America's top homegrown athletes of all time. Each week we'll bring you all-time standouts from across the sports world and give readers a chance to vote on who should be featured. One other note: With this celebration of America's top sports figures, we're also recognizing the high schools that produced them, or the athlete's hometown if they took another path to stardom.
Catch up on our previous lists here:
(listed in alphabetical order)
The list of superlatives is massive. Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, has won 11 Olympic medals, including seven golds, the most by a U.S. gymnast. She won 30 World Gymnastics medals, the most in the history of the sport. Biles authored an all-time performance in the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning four gold medals and a bronze. And let's not forget how Biles' struggles with the "twisties" at the 2020 Tokyo Games opened conversations on athlete mental health and formed the stage for her triumphant 2024 Paris Olympics that included three golds and a sliver.
The 1984 Olympic champion, Conner remains the only American male to win gymnastics gold at every level of national and international competition. Conner appeared in three Summer Olympics, winning gold twice in 1984 and scoring a perfect 10 on the parallel bars. Conner won two national championships as a gymnast at Oklahoma and is a U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and International Gymnastics Hall of Fame member.
Coughlin was a dominant force for U.S. swimming across the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Games, winning 12 medals after a shoulder injury cost her a shot at the Sydney Games in 2000. What might have been turned into what was a masterful run through three games, including five medals (two gold) in 2004 and six (one gold) in 2008. Coughlin was especially dominant in the 100-meter backstroke, an event in which she set five world records and became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier.
A three-time Olympian and member of the "Magnificent Seven" team that in 1996 became the first U.S. women's gymnastics team to win gold, Dawes was the first Black gymnast to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze on the floor in 1992. Dawes also dominated the national gymnastics scene, winning 15 U.S. national championships during her career.
The 2012 Olympic all-around gold medalist and 2012 and 2016 Olympic team champion, Douglas was an important part of a dominant stretch of U.S. women's gymnastics. She was the first Black gymnast to win Olympic gold in 2012. Douglas' comeback tour stopped just short of a spot on the 2024 Paris Olympics team, but not before Douglas became an international gymnastics sensation, honored with her own Barbie doll and making numerous media appearances.
Hamm, the first U.S. men's gymnast to win World and Olympic all-around titles, is a three-time Olympic medalist and winner of five World medals. The two-time Olympian won all-around gold at the 2004 Athens Games when he also helped the U.S. men win silver as a team, their first team medal since 1984. Hamm was also the first U.S. man to win the World all-around title (in 2003) and made history in the 2000 Olympics when he and his brother, Morgan, became the first twins to compete on the same gymnastics team at the Olympics.
Franklin rose to fame before even graduating high school, smashing world records and winning five medals (four golds and one bronze) during the 2012 London Games. The six-time Olympic medalist also won gold in 2016 as a member of the U.S. women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay team after being named the 2015 NCAA Swimmer of the Year at the University of California, Berkeley.
Forget the list of U.S. greats, Ledecky stands high on the list of swimming's all-time greats. A prodigy at the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky won the event at four consecutive Summer Olympics from 2012 to 2024. Her 14 Olympic medals are only eclipsed by Michael Phelps' 28 among U.S. swimmers, and her nine Olympic golds are a tie for most all-time by a woman in any sport. If Ledecky entered the pool, it was almost a given that she'd medal. In all her Olympic races, she only failed to make the podium in the 2020 200-meter freestyle. The winner of 21 World titles, Ledecky showed great versatility, winning at every distance from 200 to 1,500 meters.
Born in Russia and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2008 before she represented America at the Beijing Games, Liukin became a five-time Olympic medalist that year, winning all-around gold in 2008 and excelling on the balance beam and uneven bars. Liukin is a International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame member who tied Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller with the most medals at one Olympic Games by a gymnast with those five medals.
Lochte's 12 Olympic medals rank him behind only Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky on the list of most decorated U.S. swimmers. While Lochte was also at the center of a 2016 scandal surrounding accusations that he and three U.S. teammates fabricated a gunpoint robbery during his final Olympics, his prior headlines in the pool were without blemish. Between 2004 and 2016, the four-time Olympian won six golds, dominating at 200 meters.
A first-time Olympian at age 16, Louganis won silver in platform diving in 1976 before going on to become the first diver to sweep the platform and springboard in back-to-back Summer Olympics in 1984 and 1988. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games cost Louganis another shot at Olympic gold in his prime, but he established himself among the all-time diving greats. His 1984 gold medal sweep was the first for an Olympic diver in 56 years, and his 1988 performance saw him overcome striking his head on the springboard in the prelims in an indelible story of perseverance.
One of the top sprinters of her generation, Manuel became the first Black female swimmer to win individual Olympic gold in 2016. Manuel didn't stop with that 100-meter freestyle gold, and left Summer Games with four medals, including another gold in the 4x100-meter relay. The seven-time Olympic medalist also medaled in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games. Manuel, the first woman to finish the 100-yard freestyle in less than 46 seconds, had a standout collegiate career at Stanford where she was part of NCAA championship teams in 2017 and 2018.
Miller won five medals (two silver, three bronze) at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona before capturing Olympic gold in Atlanta. Part of the gold-medal "Magnificent Seven" U.S. team, Miller also won individual gold in the balance beam to increase her Olympic medal count to seven. A top international gymnast across the mid-1990s, Miller won two World all-around champion titles and multiple golds in individual disciplines.
The most decorated athlete in Olympic history, Phelps' 28 medals won across four Summer Games is a mark that may never be surpassed. And Phelps didn't just medal – he won. His record 23 Olympic gold medals included his dominant 2008 performance in Beijing, where Phelps won all eight of the individual and relay events he entered, setting seven world records in the process. Phelps used his stage to share his struggles with depression and anxiety, and at 41 remains one of the most recognizable figures in American sports, arguably the greatest Olympian of all time.
Raisman will forever be remembered for her courage as one of the U.S. gymnasts who stepped forward to reveal systemic abuses of Olympic gymnasts by disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar. Her platform as a two-time Olympian and six-time Olympic medalist brought visibility to the allegations that ended with Nassar's lifetime imprisonment. A member of gold medal-winning teams in 2012 and 2016, Raisman also excelled at the floor exercise, which she won individual gold and silver in during her two Olympic appearances.
Retton was the story of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, earning five medals in her sole Olympic appearance. Her individual all-around gold was the first in American history, a crowning achievement for the U.S. in a sport that had been dominated by East European countries. Retton scored perfect 10s on the floor routine and vault on her way to winning more medals than any other 1984 Olympian. Extremely popular in the U.S., she was the first woman to be featured on the cover of a Wheaties box.
When Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, it was Spitz's record that was broken. Until Phelps came along, Spitz laid claim to the greatest performance in a single Olympic Games, winning seven gold medals, all in world-record time, during the 1972 Munich Games. Spitz had predicted six gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City games, but ultimately finished with two golds, a silver and a bronze. But his 1972 performance was literally one of the record books, the seven-gold feat standing for 36 years.
A force for U.S. swimming across four Summer Olympics, Thompson holds 12 Olympic medals, including eight gold. The Stanford swimmer medaled in each of her Olympic appearances, excelling in the relay events. Thompson was also an individual standout at the international level, setting a 100-meter freestyle world record that stood for two years while winning 31 medals at Worlds. If that's not enough, she went on to become an anesthesiologist and surgeon after her competitive swimming career.
Torres broke her first world record at age 15 and competed in five Summer Olympics stretching from 1984 to 2008. A top sprinter, Torres won gold in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and capped her career with three silvers in Beijing in 2008. In all, Torres won 12 Olympic medals (four of each type). Torres skipped two Olympics during her prime, but at 41 became the oldest female swimmer in Olympic history in Beijing.
Well before U.S. women's gymnastics was a consistent international contender, Zmeskal became the first American to win a world all-around title, claiming that honor in 1991. A year later, she won gold on the balance beam and floor exercise at the 1992 Worlds. A member of the bronze-medal 1992 U.S. Olympic team at age 16, Zmeskal competed in the Summer Games through a stress fracture in her left ankle. While injuries derailed her Olympic hopes in 1996, Zmeskal was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2012.
If you feel like someone's missing, or you just want to reaffirm your choice for the top pick, vote in our polls below. Please refresh or click this link if the swimming and diving poll doesn't load.
Online Form - USA TODAY 250 for 250 swimming poll
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Online Form - USA TODAY 250 for 250 gymnastics poll
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From Phelps to Biles, these are the greatest U.S. swimmers and gymnasts of all time
Continue reading...
While we might have thought we wouldn't get to the finish, that was never in doubt for the all-time great U.S. swimmers who made our list. And like the gymnasts who dominated the Summer Olympics' other glamour event, we're reaching new heights in our efforts to bring you the definitive list of our nation's all-time greats – or at least one worth arguing over.
With Michael Phelps and Simone Biles leading this installment, there's not a lot of room for argument at the top. But these swimmers, divers and gymnasts are among the most decorated international athletes the U.S. has ever produced. Read on to relive their exploits.
About USA TODAY's '250 for 250' series
Through July 4, USA TODAY Sports is releasing our "250 for 250" list of America's top homegrown athletes of all time. Each week we'll bring you all-time standouts from across the sports world and give readers a chance to vote on who should be featured. One other note: With this celebration of America's top sports figures, we're also recognizing the high schools that produced them, or the athlete's hometown if they took another path to stardom.
Catch up on our previous lists here:
- Men's basketball
- Women's basketball
- Baseball
- Golf and tennis
- Motorsports and combat sports
- Football
- Track and field
- Soccer
- Hockey and winter sports
The greatest American gymnasts, swimmers and divers of all time
(listed in alphabetical order)
Simone Biles, Spring, Texas
The list of superlatives is massive. Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, has won 11 Olympic medals, including seven golds, the most by a U.S. gymnast. She won 30 World Gymnastics medals, the most in the history of the sport. Biles authored an all-time performance in the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning four gold medals and a bronze. And let's not forget how Biles' struggles with the "twisties" at the 2020 Tokyo Games opened conversations on athlete mental health and formed the stage for her triumphant 2024 Paris Olympics that included three golds and a sliver.
Bart Conner, Niles West High School, Skokie, Ill.
The 1984 Olympic champion, Conner remains the only American male to win gymnastics gold at every level of national and international competition. Conner appeared in three Summer Olympics, winning gold twice in 1984 and scoring a perfect 10 on the parallel bars. Conner won two national championships as a gymnast at Oklahoma and is a U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and International Gymnastics Hall of Fame member.
Natalie Coughlin, Carondelet High School, Concord, Calif.
Coughlin was a dominant force for U.S. swimming across the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Games, winning 12 medals after a shoulder injury cost her a shot at the Sydney Games in 2000. What might have been turned into what was a masterful run through three games, including five medals (two gold) in 2004 and six (one gold) in 2008. Coughlin was especially dominant in the 100-meter backstroke, an event in which she set five world records and became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier.
Dominique Dawes, Gaithersburg High School, Md.
A three-time Olympian and member of the "Magnificent Seven" team that in 1996 became the first U.S. women's gymnastics team to win gold, Dawes was the first Black gymnast to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze on the floor in 1992. Dawes also dominated the national gymnastics scene, winning 15 U.S. national championships during her career.
Gabby Douglas, Oak Park high School, Calif.
The 2012 Olympic all-around gold medalist and 2012 and 2016 Olympic team champion, Douglas was an important part of a dominant stretch of U.S. women's gymnastics. She was the first Black gymnast to win Olympic gold in 2012. Douglas' comeback tour stopped just short of a spot on the 2024 Paris Olympics team, but not before Douglas became an international gymnastics sensation, honored with her own Barbie doll and making numerous media appearances.
Paul Hamm, Waukesha South High School, Wis.
Hamm, the first U.S. men's gymnast to win World and Olympic all-around titles, is a three-time Olympic medalist and winner of five World medals. The two-time Olympian won all-around gold at the 2004 Athens Games when he also helped the U.S. men win silver as a team, their first team medal since 1984. Hamm was also the first U.S. man to win the World all-around title (in 2003) and made history in the 2000 Olympics when he and his brother, Morgan, became the first twins to compete on the same gymnastics team at the Olympics.
Missy Franklin, Regis Jesuit High School, Aurora, Colo.
Franklin rose to fame before even graduating high school, smashing world records and winning five medals (four golds and one bronze) during the 2012 London Games. The six-time Olympic medalist also won gold in 2016 as a member of the U.S. women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay team after being named the 2015 NCAA Swimmer of the Year at the University of California, Berkeley.
Katie Ledecky, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Bethesda, Md.
Forget the list of U.S. greats, Ledecky stands high on the list of swimming's all-time greats. A prodigy at the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky won the event at four consecutive Summer Olympics from 2012 to 2024. Her 14 Olympic medals are only eclipsed by Michael Phelps' 28 among U.S. swimmers, and her nine Olympic golds are a tie for most all-time by a woman in any sport. If Ledecky entered the pool, it was almost a given that she'd medal. In all her Olympic races, she only failed to make the podium in the 2020 200-meter freestyle. The winner of 21 World titles, Ledecky showed great versatility, winning at every distance from 200 to 1,500 meters.
Nastia Liukin, Spring Creek Academy, Plano, Texas
Born in Russia and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2008 before she represented America at the Beijing Games, Liukin became a five-time Olympic medalist that year, winning all-around gold in 2008 and excelling on the balance beam and uneven bars. Liukin is a International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame member who tied Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller with the most medals at one Olympic Games by a gymnast with those five medals.
Ryan Lochte, Spruce Creek High School, Port Orange, Fla.
Lochte's 12 Olympic medals rank him behind only Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky on the list of most decorated U.S. swimmers. While Lochte was also at the center of a 2016 scandal surrounding accusations that he and three U.S. teammates fabricated a gunpoint robbery during his final Olympics, his prior headlines in the pool were without blemish. Between 2004 and 2016, the four-time Olympian won six golds, dominating at 200 meters.
Greg Louganis, Valhalla High School, El Cajon, Calif.
A first-time Olympian at age 16, Louganis won silver in platform diving in 1976 before going on to become the first diver to sweep the platform and springboard in back-to-back Summer Olympics in 1984 and 1988. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games cost Louganis another shot at Olympic gold in his prime, but he established himself among the all-time diving greats. His 1984 gold medal sweep was the first for an Olympic diver in 56 years, and his 1988 performance saw him overcome striking his head on the springboard in the prelims in an indelible story of perseverance.
Simone Manuel, Stephen F. Austin High School, Sugar Land, Texas
One of the top sprinters of her generation, Manuel became the first Black female swimmer to win individual Olympic gold in 2016. Manuel didn't stop with that 100-meter freestyle gold, and left Summer Games with four medals, including another gold in the 4x100-meter relay. The seven-time Olympic medalist also medaled in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games. Manuel, the first woman to finish the 100-yard freestyle in less than 46 seconds, had a standout collegiate career at Stanford where she was part of NCAA championship teams in 2017 and 2018.
Shannon Miller, Edmond North High School, Okla.
Miller won five medals (two silver, three bronze) at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona before capturing Olympic gold in Atlanta. Part of the gold-medal "Magnificent Seven" U.S. team, Miller also won individual gold in the balance beam to increase her Olympic medal count to seven. A top international gymnast across the mid-1990s, Miller won two World all-around champion titles and multiple golds in individual disciplines.
Michael Phelps, Towson High School, Md.
The most decorated athlete in Olympic history, Phelps' 28 medals won across four Summer Games is a mark that may never be surpassed. And Phelps didn't just medal – he won. His record 23 Olympic gold medals included his dominant 2008 performance in Beijing, where Phelps won all eight of the individual and relay events he entered, setting seven world records in the process. Phelps used his stage to share his struggles with depression and anxiety, and at 41 remains one of the most recognizable figures in American sports, arguably the greatest Olympian of all time.
Aly Raisman, Needham High School, Mass.
Raisman will forever be remembered for her courage as one of the U.S. gymnasts who stepped forward to reveal systemic abuses of Olympic gymnasts by disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar. Her platform as a two-time Olympian and six-time Olympic medalist brought visibility to the allegations that ended with Nassar's lifetime imprisonment. A member of gold medal-winning teams in 2012 and 2016, Raisman also excelled at the floor exercise, which she won individual gold and silver in during her two Olympic appearances.
Mary Lou Retton, Fairmont, W.V.
Retton was the story of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, earning five medals in her sole Olympic appearance. Her individual all-around gold was the first in American history, a crowning achievement for the U.S. in a sport that had been dominated by East European countries. Retton scored perfect 10s on the floor routine and vault on her way to winning more medals than any other 1984 Olympian. Extremely popular in the U.S., she was the first woman to be featured on the cover of a Wheaties box.
Mark Spitz, Santa Clara High School, Calif.
When Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, it was Spitz's record that was broken. Until Phelps came along, Spitz laid claim to the greatest performance in a single Olympic Games, winning seven gold medals, all in world-record time, during the 1972 Munich Games. Spitz had predicted six gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City games, but ultimately finished with two golds, a silver and a bronze. But his 1972 performance was literally one of the record books, the seven-gold feat standing for 36 years.
Jenny Thompson, Dover High School, N.H.
A force for U.S. swimming across four Summer Olympics, Thompson holds 12 Olympic medals, including eight gold. The Stanford swimmer medaled in each of her Olympic appearances, excelling in the relay events. Thompson was also an individual standout at the international level, setting a 100-meter freestyle world record that stood for two years while winning 31 medals at Worlds. If that's not enough, she went on to become an anesthesiologist and surgeon after her competitive swimming career.
Dara Torres, Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles
Torres broke her first world record at age 15 and competed in five Summer Olympics stretching from 1984 to 2008. A top sprinter, Torres won gold in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and capped her career with three silvers in Beijing in 2008. In all, Torres won 12 Olympic medals (four of each type). Torres skipped two Olympics during her prime, but at 41 became the oldest female swimmer in Olympic history in Beijing.
Kim Zmeskal, Westfield High School, Houston
Well before U.S. women's gymnastics was a consistent international contender, Zmeskal became the first American to win a world all-around title, claiming that honor in 1991. A year later, she won gold on the balance beam and floor exercise at the 1992 Worlds. A member of the bronze-medal 1992 U.S. Olympic team at age 16, Zmeskal competed in the Summer Games through a stress fracture in her left ankle. While injuries derailed her Olympic hopes in 1996, Zmeskal was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2012.
Who'd we miss? Vote for your favorite athlete in our interactive polls
If you feel like someone's missing, or you just want to reaffirm your choice for the top pick, vote in our polls below. Please refresh or click this link if the swimming and diving poll doesn't load.
Online Form - USA TODAY 250 for 250 swimming poll
Please refresh or click this link if the gymnastics poll doesn't load.
Online Form - USA TODAY 250 for 250 gymnastics poll
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From Phelps to Biles, these are the greatest U.S. swimmers and gymnasts of all time
Continue reading...
