Sports Illustrated marked America’s 250th anniversary with the largest homegrown-athlete inventory the magazine has ever assembled: a 250-name project called the United Greats of America, naming the five best athletes from each of the 50 states. Tucked inside that roster is a quieter story about one sport that runs deeper across state lines than any other on the list, with two of its figures landing in a single state’s top three behind only baseball’s most mythologized name.
The swim names run from Alaska to Tennessee and span a century of Olympic history, with a handful of aquatic divers and water polo players mixed in. What follows is how SI picked the field, which states carried the pool names, and which two swimmers ended up sharing a podium with Babe Ruth.
How the United Greats Were Picked
SI’s editors dug out a project the magazine first ran in its Dec. 27, 1999 issue, when the homegrown-talents ranking was a 50-names-per-state feature and included coaches as well as athletes. The 2026 version focuses on athletes only and trims each state to five, arriving at 250 names in the full 250-name ranking of America’s best athletes by state.
Athletes were assigned to states by where their early flashes happened, not necessarily by where they were born. SI lists three rules for that assignment.
- Where an athlete attended high school, for a majority of years or for the final or graduating year.
- Primary residence as a child, if an athlete was homeschooled or did not attend high school.
- The 1999 list’s spirit of placing athletes “not necessarily to where they were born, but to where they first showed flashes of the greatness to come.”
Not necessarily to where they were born, but to where they first showed flashes of the greatness to come.
Those three rules govern every name below, including the dozen-plus aquatics entries on the alphabet.
Maryland’s Case for the Swimming Capital
Of every state on the list, only Maryland can claim two of the three most decorated Olympians in the country, both still known more for the medals they have won than for any hometown rivalry. The state’s top spot on SI’s ranking went to Babe Ruth, the baseball player SI describes as one of the greatest of all time. The two names directly behind him are the cases for an alternate Maryland claim. Michael Phelps sits at No. 2 and Katie Ledecky at No. 3.
Between them, the two swimmers carry 42 Olympic medals and 32 Olympic golds. Michael Phelps’s career-by-Games medal breakdown runs to 28 Olympic medals in total, 23 of them gold, the most Olympic golds ever won by any athlete. Ledecky’s tally, at 14 Olympic medals and 9 golds, makes her the most decorated female swimmer in U.S. history.
The headline numbers carry the case.
- 250 names in the SI project overall
- 42 Olympic medals between Phelps and Ledecky
- 32 Olympic golds between the pair
- 28 Olympic medals for Phelps alone
- 14 Olympic medals for Ledecky
SwimSwam’s coverage of the list calls both Phelps and Ledecky the most decorated Olympians in the country, and the SI ranking writes the same statement into a state’s top three. The contract that runs NBC Sports’s year-round swimming coverage through 2028, reported in the multi-year USA Swimming deal that runs through 2028, is one measure of how that depth now plays out in broadcast time.
Alaska, the First Pool Name on the Roster
The list runs alphabetically, and the second state up is Alaska. Four Alaskan names run ahead of a swimmer on the page: Trajan Langdon (who SI notes is now president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons), cross-country skier Kikkan Randall, Carlos Boozer, and dog musher George Attla. The state’s No. 5 slot is the first pool name a reader meets on the alphabet.
Lydia Jacoby won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2021 Tokyo Games, pulling the upset of Lilly King along the way and adding a silver in the 4×100-meter medley relay for a two-medal Olympic debut. The SI profile notes she grew up in Seward, Alaska, which makes her the rare Olympic swimming champion from outside the sport’s traditional talent corridors.
The parallel Australian story, where the rival who beat Ledecky in the 400 free at the Tokyo Games later announced her retirement, sits in the Australian rival who retired after a 2024 win over Ledecky. Different geography, same story of how a single Olympic race can set a country’s medal hopes for a generation.
Colorado and Hawai’i: West-Coast Pool Credentials
Two states west of the Mississippi carry the next pool names. Colorado places boxer Jack Dempsey at No. 1, Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White at No. 2, and Amy Van Dyken at No. 3. Van Dyken’s four golds at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she also took silver and bronze the same week, made her the most decorated U.S. woman at those Games.
Hawai’i runs surfing on its list. The state’s No. 1 spot is Duke Kahanamoku, who SI calls the father of modern surfing and who also won three Olympic freestyle golds across the 1912, 1920, and 1924 Games. Clarence “Buster” Crabbe, the 400-meter freestyle gold medalist at the 1932 Olympics, takes the No. 4 slot. The two water names bracket four decades of Hawaiian Olympic history.
Both names are well known to SI readers; what the SI ranking adds is their place inside the state’s top five, judged by the same three rules the rest of the list runs on.
Kentucky, New England, Oregon and Rhode Island: Five States, Five Pool Names
The alphabet pulls the next set of pool names out of the middle of the country. Kentucky puts Muhammad Ali at No. 1 and Mary T. Meagher at No. 2. SI notes Meagher as “Madame Butterfly” in U.S. swimming history, and her three Olympic golds at the 1984 Los Angeles Games came in the 100-meter butterfly, the 200-meter butterfly, and the medley relay. She held world records in both butterfly distances for close to two decades, a number SI’s Pacific neighbour Olympic profile confirms in reporting on her Masters returns.
Oregon slots Don Schollander at the top of its list, four golds at the 1964 Tokyo Games. The 1964 Tokyo haul was the most golds by an American at a single Olympics since Jesse Owens in 1936, a number that stood for four years until Michael Phelps broke it in Athens.
Rhode Island’s No. 5 is Elizabeth Beisel, whose Olympic medal haul is a silver in the 400-meter individual medley and a bronze in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2012 London Games, with a world-championship gold in the 400-meter IM at Shanghai in 2011. New Hampshire’s No. 12 is Jenny Thompson, who finished her career as the most decorated female Olympic swimmer with 12 medals.
The full count of swimmers and aquatics entries, walked state by state, lives in SwimSwam’s list-by-list recap of every aquatics entry.
The Edges of the Aquatics Map: Tennessee, Arizona and the Divers
The list closes its swim mentions at Tennessee. Tracy Caulkins, set 63 American records in her career and took three Olympic golds in 1984 in Los Angeles after the 1980 Moscow boycott cost her an earlier debut. SI lists her at the No. 4 spot in the Volunteer State.
Arizona gives the list its only diver. Michele Mitchell, a nine-time national champion at the University of Arizona and a two-time Olympic silver medalist on the 10-meter platform in 1984 and 1988, takes the No. 4 spot. The SI profile notes her current role as director of operations for the Wildcats’ swimming and diving team. The state does not list a swimmer; Mitchell’s the lone aquatics name.
How the list sizes up, state by state for the aquatics entries covered here:
| State | Athlete | SI slot | Primary event | Career anchor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Lydia Jacoby | 5 | 100m breaststroke | 2021 Olympic gold; 2021 Olympic silver (4×100 medley relay) |
| Arizona | Michele Mitchell (diver) | 4 | 10m platform | 2 Olympic silvers (1984, 1988); 9 U.S. national titles |
| Colorado | Amy Van Dyken | 3 | 50m free, 100m fly | 4 Olympic golds at 1996 Atlanta |
| Hawai’i | Duke Kahanamoku | 1 | Freestyle | 3 Olympic golds (1912, 1920, 1924) |
| Hawai’i | Clarence “Buster” Crabbe | 4 | 400m freestyle | 1 Olympic gold (1932 Los Angeles) |
| Kentucky | Mary T. Meagher | 2 | 100m and 200m butterfly | 3 Olympic golds (1984 LA); butterfly world records held for close to two decades |
| Maryland | Michael Phelps | 2 | Multiple | 28 Olympic medals, 23 golds |
| Maryland | Katie Ledecky | 3 | Distance freestyle | 14 Olympic medals, 9 golds |
| New Hampshire | Jenny Thompson | 12 | Freestyle, butterfly | 12 Olympic medals (most by a female U.S. swimmer) |
| Oregon | Don Schollander | 1 | Freestyle | 4 Olympic golds at 1964 Tokyo |
| Rhode Island | Elizabeth Beisel | 5 | 400m IM, 200m back | 2012 Olympic silver and bronze; 2011 world gold |
| Tennessee | Tracy Caulkins | 4 | IM and breaststroke | 63 American records; 3 Olympic golds (1984 LA) |
Caulkins’s record total stood for years as the U.S. standard, set across a career whose Olympic debut was delayed by the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. That detail is one the SI list surfaced without commentary, and the bigger picture of where American Olympic swimming’s depth sits on the alphabet takes shape above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the “United Greats of America”?
The United Greats of America is SI’s 250-name project for the country’s 250th anniversary, naming the five best athletes from each of the 50 states based on where their early flashes happened rather than where they were born.
How many swimmers and aquatics athletes made the 2026 SI list?
The alphabet picks up a dozen aquatics names across the 50 states, with concentration in states like Maryland (Phelps, Ledecky) and Hawai’i (Kahanamoku, Crabbe), plus single entries in Alaska, Arizona (a diver), Colorado, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
Who outranks Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky in Maryland?
Babe Ruth, the baseball player SI calls one of the greatest baseball players in history, takes the No. 1 slot in Maryland. Phelps is at No. 2 and Ledecky at No. 3.
Is Phelps still the most decorated Olympian in U.S. history?
Yes, with 28 Olympic medals in total and 23 Olympic golds, both records across all U.S. Olympians and the most golds of any swimmer in Olympic history, per the Olympics.com profile.
Why did the list include only one diver?
SI limited each state to five names, so the only diver to make a state’s top five was Michele Mitchell for Arizona; the remaining aquatics slots went to swimmers.
