Chris Boardman's Greatest Olympians

1 Sir Steve Redgrave (GB)
Winning a gold medal in five Games is just amazing. It's not just having your best form once, it's having it over a period of 16 years

Gold 5 Bronze 1 Total 6
1984 Gold (Coxed four)
1988 Gold (Coxless pair) Bronze (Coxed pair)
1992 Gold (Coxless pair)
1996 Gold (Coxless pair)
2000 Gold (Coxless four)

2 Michael Phelps (US)
Second spot is just about his – but he needs more than this to absolutely confirm his second position.
Gold 12 Bronze 2 Total 14
2004 6 Golds (400m individual medley, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m IM, 4x200m free relay, 4x100m medley relay. 2 Bronze (4x100m free relay, 200m free).
2008 6 Golds (400m IM, 4x100m free relay, 200m free, 200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle, 200m I M) (not including last night)

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3 Carl Lewis (US)
You've got to put Lewis up here, haven't you ? It's like Redgrave – it's the longevity thing again.
Gold 9 Silver 1 Total 10
1984 4 Golds (100m, 200m, long jump, 4x100m relay)
1988 2 Golds (100m, long jump) 1 Silver (200m)
1992 2 Golds (4x100m relay, long jump)
1996 1 Gold (long jump)

4 Mark Spitz (US)
The swimmer was one of my first big icons as a multi-medallist. He showed it could be done.
Gold 9 Silver 1 Bronze 1 Total 11
1968 2 Golds (4x100m free, 4x200m free) 1 Silver (100m butterfly) 1 Bronze (100m free)
1972 7 Golds (100m free, 200m free, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 4x100m free relay, 4x200m free relay, 4x100m medley relay)

5 A British cyclist
Ask me again in a few years, and I think it could well be a British cyclist.
Contenders? Nicole Cooke 2008 Gold (women's road race).Chris Hoy 2008 Gold (men's team sprint), 2004 Gold (1km time trial), Bradley Wiggins 2004 Gold (4km individual pursuit) Silver (Team pursuit) Bronze (Madison).

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