The Greatest Track and Field Athlete of the Olympic Games
Who is the greatest Track and Field athlete of all time based on Olympic Games performances? We have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female Track and Field athlete from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The best all-time performing Track and Field athlete at the Olympic Games is Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi who competed between 1920 and 1928, and won 12 medals including 9 gold medals. He was only slightly ahead of US sprinter Carl Lewis who also won 9 gold medals. Jamaican Usain Bolt also won 9 golds, but a relay gold was taken off him later when a team-mate was found guilty of doping. The best performing female athlete is US sprinter Allyson Felix, who added another gold to her tally in 2021 to move up to third on this list. See the table below to see how other athletes ranked.
See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.
Top Olympic Athletes From Track & Field
Here are the top-ranked athletes from the sport of Track and Field for performances at all Olympiads, using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt). All athletes who have won at least four gold medals have been included in this list.
Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Track and Field at the Olympic Games
| rank | name | country | gender | Gold | Silver | Bronze | total medals |
rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paavo Nurmi | Finland | M | 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 60 |
| 2 | Carl Lewis | United States | M | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 56 |
| 3 | Allyson Felix | United States | F | 7 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 49 |
| =4 | Usain Bolt | Jamaica | M | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 48 |
| =4 | Ray Ewry | United States | M | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 48 |
| 6 | Ville Ritola | Finland | M | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 36 |
| 7 | Elaine Thompson-Herah | Jamaica | F | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 32 |
| =8 | Evelyn Ashford | United States | F | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| =8 | Hannes Kolehmainen | Finland | M | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| =8 | Mel Sheppard | United States | M | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| =8 | Emil Zátopek | Czechoslovakia | M | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| 12 | Sanya Richards-Ross | United States | F | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 25 |
| =13 | Fanny Blankers-Koen | Netherlands | F | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Betty Cuthbert | Australia | F | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Harrison Dillard | United States | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Mohamed Farah | Great Britain | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Michael Johnson | United States | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Robert Korzeniowski | Poland | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Alvin Kraenzlein | United States | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Al Oerter | United States | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Jesse Owens | United States | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Lasse Virén | Finland | M | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| =13 | Bärbel Wöckel | East Germany | F | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
Related Pages
- List of the best athlete from each Olympic sport
- The greatest ever Olympic athlete
- About Olympic Medal Ranking Systems
- About the sport of Athletics
- Medal tables from all Olympic Games
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Selected Comments
- Allyson Felix is a highly decorated relay runner but has just 1 individual gold medal in the Olympics. She's not ranked in the top 6 all time in any of her events. How could that put her so high up above others who have achieved much more? (from Steve Kemp, Dec 2021)
Upcoming Events