The Oldest Olympic Champions In Swimming History – SwimSwam

This will be a part of a series featuring analyzing Olympic medalists in swimming by age, thanks to the data compiled by SwimmingStats guruDaniel Takata(@Swimming Stats).

After we took a look at the youngest Olympic champions in swimming history earlier this month, its now time to analyze the opposite end of the spectrumthe oldest Olympic gold medalists in the sports history.

As we discovered in the earlier article, swimmers tend to peak in their early 20s, with women sometimes doing so in their late teens.

As a result of that, its incredibly rare to see a swimmer experience success at the highest level after their 30th birthday. There have been just 11 swimmers in history to win Olympic gold after their 30th birthday, and only five of them have done so in an individual event.

The oldest Olympic champ in history isAnthony Ervin, who stunningly returned to the top of the podium in the mens 50 freestyle in Rio (2016) 16 years after winning the same event in Sydney (2000) when he was. 19-year-old.

In fact, the seven oldest gold medalists have come in the last 20 years, due to legendary swimmers such as Dara Torres,Michael Phelps,Jason Lezak andRyan Lochte having wrapped up their careers relatively recently. American swimmers feature heavily on the list, with the strength of the U.S. relays (and funding keeping American swimmers in the sport longer than other nations in certain cases) a factor.

Torres is the oldest female Olympic gold medalist, having won relay gold in Sydney at the age of 33. Eight years later, at 41, Torres won three silver medals in Beijing, including placing second in the 50 free by .01, which wouldve made her the oldest gold medalist by six years if she had pulled out the win.

Incredibly, with Torres missing that victory by a mere hundredth, the oldest woman to win gold individually isInge de Bruijn, who was 11 years younger than Torres was in Beijing at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when she won the 50 free. GermanysUrsula Happe is the only other woman to win individual gold after the age of 30, while Phelps andDuke Kahanamoku join Ervin as the other two men to do so.

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The Oldest Olympic Champions In Swimming History - SwimSwam