Multiple appearances
Several athletes would have made more appearances at the Olympics if not for reasons out of their control, such as World War I and World War II (no Olympics were held in 1916, 1940 or 1944), politically motivated boycotts, financial difficulties, or ill-timed injuries.
Canadian equestrian athlete Ian Millar and Georgian sports shooter Nino Salukvadze (representing Soviet Union in 1988 and Unified Team in 1992) have competed at ten Olympic games. [4] Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl and Latvian shooter Afanasijs Kuzmins (representing Soviet Union until 1988) have each made nine Olympic appearances.
Half of all six-time Olympians belong to the shooting, equestrian, sailing and table tennis disciplines, which are known for allowing athletes more longevity at the elite level. Athletics and cross-country skiing also provide a large number of athletes who have competed at five Olympics.
Number of athletes who have appeared at multiple Olympics from 1896 to 2024 inclusive | Exact number of Olympic appearances | | Minimum number of Olympic appearances |
|---|
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|
| Men | 491 | 115 | 28 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 648 | 157 | 42 | 14 | 3 | 1 |
| Women | 231 | 50 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 303 | 72 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 722 | 165 | 44 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 951 | 229 | 64 | 20 | 4 | 2 |
This table shows the number of athletes who have appeared at exactly (or at least) n Olympic Games between 1896 and 2024, as n varies from 5 to 10. For example, 28 men have appeared at exactly seven Olympics while 42 men have appeared in at least seven Olympics. Appearances at the 1906 Intercalated Games are not included. Winter and Summer Olympics are counted as 'different' Olympics even if they occurred in the same year. While these numbers are believed to be correct, it is possible that one or two athletes have been missed, particularly with five-time Olympians. |
Approximately a quarter of long-competing athletes are female. Italian canoeist Josefa Idem became the first woman to take part in eight Olympics, eventually reaching the final of the K1-500m event at the age of 48. [5] Before her, the closest a female athlete had come to competing at eight Olympics was 0.028 seconds, which was the time by which Jamaican-Slovenian sprinter Merlene Ottey had failed to meet the qualification time required for appearance at the 2008 Summer Olympics, at age 48. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Georgian sports shooter Nino Salukvadze competed in her 10th consecutive Olympic Games at age 55, becoming the first female athlete in history to do so. [6]
Four six-time Olympians here have participated in Olympic Games over a period of 40 years: Bahamian sailor Durward Knowles (8 Olympics), Danish sailor Paul Elvstrøm (8), Danish fencer Ivan Osiier (7), and Norwegian sailor Magnus Konow (6). Note should also be made of Japanese equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu, whose first and third Olympic appearances in 1964 and 2012 were 48 years apart. Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina has competed at every Olympics from 1992-2020. She continues to compete at the elite level in her late 40s in a sport where few competitors continue past their mid-20s or compete at two or three Olympics.
Two five-time Olympians competed under four different flags at the Olympics, one of whom never actually changed nationality. Both shooter Jasna Šekarić (7 Olympics) and table tennis player Ilija Lupulesku (5) competed for Yugoslavia at the 1988 Olympics. In 1992, since Yugoslavia was under UN sanctions, they (and fifty other Serbians, Montenegrins and Macedonians) competed as Independent Olympic Participants before competing at the next Olympics under the flag of Serbia and Montenegro. Lupulesku became an American citizen and competed for the USA in 2004, while Šekarić finally competed for Serbia in 2008.
29 five-time Olympians have won at least eight medals: American swimmer Michael Phelps (28), Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen (15), German equestrian Isabell Werth (14), Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen (13), Italian fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti (13), Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst (13), German kayaker Birgit Fischer (12), American swimmer Dara Torres (12), American track and field athlete Allyson Felix (11), Italian short track speed skater Arianna Fontana (11), Hungarian fencer Aladár Gerevich (10), Italian cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo (10), Russian cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina (10), Finnish gymnast Heikki Savolainen (9), Jamaican-Slovenian sprinter Merlene Ottey (9), German speed skater Claudia Pechstein (9), Italian fencer Valentina Vezzali (9), Dutch equestrian Anky van Grunsven (9), German biathlete Uschi Disl (9), Romanian rower Elisabeta Oleniuc (8), German equestrian Reiner Klimke (8), Italian fencer Giovanna Trillini (8), French fencer Philippe Cattiau (8), Jamaican track and field athlete Veronica Campbell-Brown (8), Jamaican track and field athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (8), Russian diver Dmitri Sautin (8), Norwegian alpine skier Kjetil André Aamodt (8), German biathlete Ricco Groß (8) and british cyclist Bradley Wiggins (8).
57 athletes who have competed in at least five Olympics participated in two sports: 23 of them competing at both the Winter and Summer Olympics, 21 competing at the Summer Olympics and 13 competing at the Winter Olympics. The most common cross-over sports are athletics/bobsleigh (8 competitors) and cycling/speed skating (3 competitors).
Married couples among five-time Olympians include biathletes Ole Einar Bjørndalen (Norway) and Nathalie Santer-Bjørndalen (Italy/Belgium), Lithuanian pairs figure skaters Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, Finnish cross-country skiers Harri Kirvesniemi and Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi-Hämäläinen, lugers Susi Erdmann (Germany) and Gerhard Plankensteiner (Italy).
Familial relationships among five-time Olympians include Belgian shooters François Lafortune Sr and Jr (father-son; with their brothers/uncles, they have seventeen Olympic appearances between them), Italian equestrians Piero and Raimondo d'Inzeo (brothers), British canoeists Andrew and Stephen Train (brothers), Greek shooters Alexandros and Ioannis Theofilakis (brothers), Italian cross-country skiers Sabina Valbusa-Fulvio Valbusa and Manuela Di Centa-Giorgio Di Centa (sister-brother), Brazilian equestrians Nelson and Rodrigo Pessoa (father-son), Austrian lugers Markus and Tobias Schiegl (cousins), Latvian skeleton racers Martins Dukurs and Tomass Dukurs (brothers). A more tenuous relationship is that of Argentine sailors Jorge Salas Chávez and Roberto Sieburger; Chávez's cousin Jorge del Río Salas (4 Olympics) married Sieburger's cousin Marylin Sieburger. (The extended Sieburger-Salas clan includes seven Argentinian sailors with twenty Olympic appearances.)
