by Sage Kalmus

Created on: April 25, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

If the following 10 divers aren't the best in Olympic history, then they are certainly in the running (and at the head of the pack).

1. Dmitiri Sautin (European Union/Russia) - The only Olympic diver to win 7 medals, Dmitri Sautin won the 1992 and 2004 springboard bronze medals, the 1996 platform gold, and 4 medals in 2000: the platform bronze, springboard bronze, synchronized springboard silver, and synchronized platform gold.

2. Kalus Dibiasi (Italy) - After taking the silver in 1964 in platform diving, Klaus Dibiasi came back to win the next two platform diving gold medals, in 1968 and 1972. His real claim to fame, however, came the following Olympic season, in 1976, when he won the platform diving gold once again, making him the first diver to win the same Olympic event three times consecutively. In 1968, Dibiasi also took home the silver in springboard.

3. Greg Louganis (USA) - Even after making the 1988 gaffe viewed round the world of hitting his head on the diving board during the preliminary rounds of the springboard diving competition, this 1985 U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductee achieved a double-double that year, claiming the springboard gold nonetheless as well as the platform gold, on the heels of sweeping the diving competition 4 years before.

4. Pat McCormick (USA) - Just 8 months after giving birth, Pat McCormick achieved a double-double winning both the platform diving and springboard diving medals in two consecutive Summer Olympics. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympics Hall of Fame in 1985.

5. Fu Mingxia (China) - The only woman to win 5 Olympic diving medals, Fu Mingxia won the 1992 platform gold, the 1996 platform and springboard golds, the 2000 springboard gold as well as the 2000 synchronized springboard silver.

6. Sammy Lee (USA) - The first male to win the gold medal in the same event in two consecutive Summer Olympics, Sammy Hill first won the platform diving event in 1948 (also making this American of Korean descent the first Asian-American ever to win an Olympic medal) and again in 1952. In later years he coached Olympic medal-winners Greg Louganis and Bob Webster, and in 1990 was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

7. Ingrid Kramer (Germany) - In 1960, this East German teenager held the distinction of being the first person from somewhere other than the US to win the gold medal in springboard diving since the event was made an Olympic sport in 1920. That same year, Ingrid Kramer also won the platform diving title, making her

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