Wow.

Michael Phelps has broken a 2,000-year-old Olympic record by surpassing the 12 individual titles won by Leonidas of Rhodes. Who was this athlete whose record has taken two millennia to beat, asks Jon Kelly?

Phelps has a total of 22 Olympic gold medals, but nine of these have come in relays – in terms of individual titles he has only just passed the greatest athlete of the ancient world.

Leonidas of Rhodes competed in four successive Olympiads in 164BC, 160BC, 156BC and 152BC and in each of these he won three different foot races.