If Michael Phelps were a country... - CNN (blog)

– He would be ranked #52 in the medal count, tied with the country of Georgia for 19 total medals, better than 148 other countries in the Summer Olympics.

– He'd have more twitter followers (674,730) than Luxembourg has in total population (509,074).

– He'd be making more money than certain entire countries. He is estimated to make $100 million over the course of his lifetime. This is more than twice the estimated GDP of the Tuvalu Islands ($37,470,000).

– He'd be liked on Facebook (5.5 million times) more times than the total number of internet users in Greece (4,971,000).

– Phelps, born in 1985, would be older than several countries including Namibia, Slovakia, Serbia, Kosovo, and South Sudan.

– Phelps, standing 6-foot-4, would be taller than the average Dutch man (6 feet), considered to be the world's tallest people.

We say this, of course to highlight the legacy of Phelps, who won his 19th medal on Tuesday, which earned him the record of the most medals won of all time.

Phelps, who began swimming to emulate his sisters at age 7, set individual world records 29 times, and he still holds records in six events. In the three competitive races he has left he won't be besting those times, now that he's almost a swimming old man (and because of slower swimsuits).

He wraps up a career as the most decorated Olympian ever, perhaps the greatest ever. Some commentators will argue the cases of track and field's Carl Lewis, who missed an Olympics because of a U.S. boycott, or distance runner Paavo Nurmi, who won 12 medals. Some might argue for Bjorn Daehlie, the Norwegian cross-country skier. And there's gymnast Larisa Latynina, whose 18 medals are now second all time.

Vote in the poll below if you think Michael Phelps should be considered the greatest Olympian ever. We plan to keep adding to this list so let us know in the comments if you have any similar "if Michael Phelps were a country" comparisons and we'll check them out.