Olympic Swimming Question

Hi all, I was recently reading the below article which listed the greatest Olympic gold winners of all time. I noticed there were 6 swimmers in the list out of 25 athletes. Is this because there are multiple opportunities to win medals at Olympic swimming or just because the swimmers winning the medals are by far the best in their field? Original article: www.infobarrel.com/25_Top_Olympic_Gold_Medal_Winners Swmming events are fairly related plus there's relays In 2008 Phelps made USAs team in 100 fl 200 fl 200 im 400 im 200 fr By placing top 2 at USAs 2008 trials He was on USAS 4 x 100 fr relay because he was one of USAs 4 fastest 100 freestylers even though he didn't swim the 100 fr in finals, I think he swam prelims to post a time at the USA's OTs & he was also on USAs 4 x 200 fr relay He had to be incredibly fit to handle the demanding schedule of Prelims, semi finals, & finals swim races are related

Hi all, I was recently reading the below article which listed the greatest Olympic gold winners of all time. I noticed there were 6 swimmers in the list out of 25 athletes. Is this because there are multiple opportunities to win medals at Olympic swimming or just because the swimmers winning the medals are by far the best in their field? Original article: www.infobarrel.com/25_Top_Olympic_Gold_Medal_Winners Swmming events are fairly related plus there's relays In 2008 Phelps made USAs team in 100 fl 200 fl 200 im 400 im 200 fr By placing top 2 at USAs 2008 trials He was on USAS 4 x 100 fr relay because he was one of USAs 4 fastest 100 freestylers even though he didn't swim the 100 fr in finals, I think he swam prelims to post a time at the USA's OTs & he was also on USAs 4 x 200 fr relay He had to be incredibly fit to handle the demanding schedule of Prelims, semi finals, & finals swim races are related