The long-awaited Tokyo Olympic Games are almost upon as, with the competition getting underway on Friday.

Athletes from across the globe will be looking to write their names into Olympics legend, and add to the rich history of this competition.

Here, we look at which athletes have won the most medals in Olympics history.

The most successful Olympian of all time is US swimmer Michael Phelps, whose 28 medals are divided up as follows: 23 gold medals, three silvers and two bronze.

He followed up his six gold medals and two bronze medals at Athens 2004 with a clean sweep of eight gold medals in Beijing four years later.

At London 2012 he added a further four gold medals and two silver medals, before rounding off his Olympics career with five gold medals and one silver medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Larisa Latynina: The most successful female Olympian

Directly behind Phelps in the list of the most successful Olympians of all time is Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, whose 18 medals between 1956 and 1964 mean that she is the most successful female Olympian of all time.

At Melbourne 1956 she won the first four of her nine gold medals, one of her five silver medals and the first of four bronze medals.

She added to this success in Rome four years later, with three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal, before winning two gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals in Tokyo in 1964.

Third place in the all-time standings sees two Olympic greats tied on 15 medals each: Norwegian skier Marit Bjorgen and Soviet gymnast Nikolay Andrianov.

Olympians with more than 10 Olympic medals

In fourth place, there are four athletes who all have 13 medals each: Norwegian skier Ole Einar Bjorndalen, Soviet gymnast Boris Shaklin, Italian gymnast Edoardo Mangiarotti and Japanese gymnast Takashi Ono.

In fifth place, nine athletes have 12 medals each: Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi; German rower Birgit Fischer-Smith; Norwegian skier Bjorn Daehlie; Japanese gymnast Sawao Kato; US swimmers Jennifer Thompson, Ryan Lochte, Dara Torres and Nathalie Coughlin and Russian gymnast Aleksey Nemov.