After summarizing Kazan 2015, it’s now time to look at the all-time medals standings and to see how much things have changed after the 2015 edition of the Swimming World Championship. I used the past couple of days to give my historical swimming excel files a makeover, and now they are more presentable and handsome and single, so if you have some cute power point presentation I’m open for suggestions!

Most gold medals in a single Championships – Men

This edition of the Championships didn’t feature some historically great performance by a male swimmer. The most gold medals anyone won here was 3, which was achieved by three swimmers – Ryan Lochte, Adam Peaty and Florent Manaudou. Incidentally, three gold medals is what was needed to enter my exclusive list, and so they join many other swimmers who also achieved 3 gold medals in one Championship in the 11^th place, meaning they had the 11^th most successful Championships in terms of golden medal.

Most Gold Medals in a Single Championships (3+)
Rank	Swimmer	# of Gold Medals
1	Michael Phelps (2007)	7
2	Ian Thorpe (2001)	6
3	Jim Montgomery (1973)	5
3	Michael Phelps (2005)	5
3	Michael Phelps (2009)	5
3	Ryan Lochte (2011)	5
7	Michael Klim (1998)	4
7	Michael Phelps (2003)	4
7	Ryan Lochte (2009)	4
7	Michael Phelps (2011)	4
11	Andrew Coan (1975)	3
11	Timothy Shaw (1975)	3
11	David McCagg (1978)	3
11	Rowdy Gaines (1982)	3
11	Matt Biondi (1986)	3
11	Matt Biondi (1991)	3
11	Aaron Piersol (2003)	3
11	Alexander Popov (2003)	3
11	Grant Hackett (2003)	3
11	Ian Thorpe (2003)	3
11	Aaron Piersol (2005)	3
11	Brendan Hansen (2005)	3
11	Grant Hackett (2005)	3
11	Ryan Lochte (2013)	3
11	Sun Yang (2013)	3
11	Adam Peaty (2015)	3
11	Florent Manaudou (2015)	3
11	Ryan Lochte (2015)	3

Man, the tables here suck! If anyone knows how to make them prettier – I’m all ears.

Just a brief explanation on how the table is organized: Obviously, the number of gold medals is the first and only thing that determines your rank. However, if two (or more) swimmers won the same amount of gold medals, the one who did it earlier – goes first. After all, he did it first! The swimmer who done it second only repeated his achievement. They get the same ranking, of course, but the earlier dude gets to be higher in the table, If two (or less. Er, more) swimmers achieved the same number of gold medals in the same edition – like Peaty, Lochte and Manaudou did in Kazan, then the order is purely alphabetical, by their first name – because that’s how Excel does it and I have nothing against it. It doesn’t really mean anything… Next to each swimmer in parentheses is the year in which he achieved that feat. We can see that out of the 6 best Championships in terms of gold medals – Michael Phelps owns 3…

Most total medals in a single Championships – Men

Here too, don’t expect to see any sensational results. Ryan Lochte and Kevin Cordes were the only ones who won 4 medals in Kazan, which is the minimum required to be featured in this exclusive list. Before we analyze them further, let me introduce this new and very elegant table I compiled!

Most Medals in a Single Championships (4+)
Rank	Swimmer	# of Total Medals (G,S,B)
1	Michael Phelps (2007)	7 (7,0,0)
2	Michael Klim (1998)	7 (4,2,1)
2	Michael Phelps (2011)	7 (4,2,1)
4	Matt Biondi (1986)	7 (3,1,3)
5	Ian Thorpe (2001)	6 (6,0,0)
6	Michael Phelps (2005)	6 (5,1,0)
6	Michael Phelps (2009)	6 (5,1,0)
8	Ryan Lochte (2011)	6 (5,0,1)
9	Michael Phelps (2003)	6 (4,2,0)
10	Ryan Lochte (2009)	5 (4,0,1)
11	Jim Montgomery (1973)	5 (5,0,0)
12	Rowdy Gaines (1982)	5 (3,2,0)
13	Grant Hackett (2003)	5 (3,1,1)
13	Ian Thorpe (2003)	5 (3,1,1)
13	Grant Hackett (2005)	5 (3,1,1)
16	Ryan Lochte (2007)	5 (2,3,0)
17	Michael Gross (1982)	5 (2,1,2)
18	Matt Biondi (1991)	4 (3,1,0)
18	Aaron Piersol (2003)	4 (3,1,0)
18	Alexander Popov (2003)	4 (3,1,0)
18	Ryan Lochte (2013)	4 (3,1,0)
18	Ryan Lochte (2015)	4 (3,1,0)
23	Sun Yang (2013)	4 (3,0,1)
24	Michael Gross (1986)	4 (2,2,0)
24	Alexander Popov (1994)	4 (2,2,0)
24	Garry Hall Jr. (1994)	4 (2,2,0)
24	Grant Hackett (2001)	4 (2,2,0)
28	Roland Matthes (1973)	4 (2,1,1)
28	Sun Yang (2011)	4 (2,1,1)
28	Jeremy Stravius (2013)	4 (2,1,1)
31	Michael Gross (1991)	4 (1,2,1)
31	Denis Pankratov (1994)	4 (1,2,1)
31	Kevin Cordes (2015)	4 (1,2,1)
34	Pieter van den Hoogenband (2001)	4 (0,4,0)
35	Brian Brinkley (1975)	4 (0,1,3)

Now, how this one works? Jesus Michael, it’s not astrophysics, it’s only a goddamn medals table! The first thing that determines your (well, not your. I doubt that any of the men featured here actually reads this. Although I would love it if someone e-mails this to Ian Thrope!) ranking is the number of medals overall. So a swimmer who won 5 bronzes will be ranked higher than a swimmer who won 4 golds. Next up – the number of gold medals, which is the first number in parentheses. Michael Klim and Matt Biondi also won 7 medals previously, just like Phelps did in 2007, but his seven were all gold, while Klim only had 4 gold medals and Biondi – 3 golds (lol what a loser! hold my beer while I go and win 7 medals). Next tie-breaker – the number of silver medals, a.k.a. the second number in parentheses. If the internal medals distribution is identical – the rankings will be the same. But just like in the previous table, the swimmer who got there first will appear higher on the list. And if we’re talking about the same year – then it’s alphabetical. So, we can see that Lochte’s haul in Kazan – 3 gold medals and one silver, is only the 18^th best Championship evar, and in fact it’s identical to his 2013 Championships. Kevin Cordes, on the other hand, achieved only 1 gold, 2 silvers and 1 bronze, and his haul is the 31^st best all-time, right near the end of the list. So while it’s still a huge honor to be featured in this table, there were no historical performances in Kazan.

And just a quick recap – Phelps is so dominant that he Owns with a capital O the top spot, two of the top 3, 4 of the top 7 and 5 of the top 9 Championships… WOW! In fact, every edition he participated in is featured in the top 9, except the very first one which was held when he was 16 years old… No other swimmer has more than one appearance in the top 9. Now THAT’S some dominance!

In order to ease a bit on the eyes and to spare you four fucking tables in a single post – I’ll save the women’s summary for tomorrow.

So, brace yourself!