Canada at the Summer Olympics became the first Canadian Summer Olympian to win a medal in four straight Olympics. After George Hodgson won two gold medals in the 1912 Stockholm games, it would be 72 years before Alex Baumann became the second Canadian swimmer to win Olympic gold, when he won both individual medley events in world record time in the 1984 Los Angeles games. Victor Davis (1984), Anne Ottenbrite (1984), Mark Tewksbury (1992) and Penny Oleksiak (2016) are the only other Canadian swimmers to win gold medals. In 2004, Canada failed to win a medal of any colour in swimming for the first time
United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics highest total medal count, and won more silver and bronze medals than any other participating nation. This games also saw a gold medal record for U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who won 8 golds surpassing Mark Spitz's record of 7 golds in a single Olympic event in 1972. Phelps also surpassed Spitz, Larisa Latynina of the USSR, Paavo Nurmi of Finland, and U.S. sprinter Carl Lewis to become the current record holder for the most Olympic gold medals (14). The United States also saw milestones in women's swimming. Natalie Coughlin won 6 medals in Beijing, the most for a female Olympic