Most Swimming World Records Broken — Individual Athletes

About This Dataset

Swimmers who have broken the most individual long-course world records in FINA/World Aquatics competition. Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky are among the most prolific world record holders in swimming history, with Phelps having broken 39 individual world records across his career.

Analysis

Michael Phelps heads the table on 39, ahead of Mark Spitz (33) and Katie Ledecky (15) in Individual World Records Broken. 34 separates the highest figure (39) from the lowest (5). First and second are separated by 6, so the leader sits inside the field rather than apart from it. Only 2 of the 8 reach even half the leader's figure (19.5 or more).

Source: Wikipedia

Key Findings

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Michael Phelps leads in Individual World Records Broken with 39.

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Average Individual World Records Broken: 16 · median: 10.

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Gap: Michael Phelps is 7.8× larger than Ryan Lochte.

Most Swimming World Records Broken — Individual Athletes

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Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

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Data Points

8 categories · 1 year

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Top Value

Michael Phelps

Individual World Records Broken · All Time

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Metrics

Individual World Records Broken

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Period

All Time

Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source: Wikipedia
Coverage: 8 entities · 8 observations
Measure: Individual World Records Broken
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Compiled by: The ANYSTAT team, from the source above

How the figures are calculated

Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.