Determining whether an Olympic athlete is from your coverage area

What provides the reader with more information and context, "former Olympian" or 2012 Olympian?" It's not a sentimental thing for me, it's concise delivery of information.

What better tells the story? Former Olympian Michael Phelps or 18-time Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps. 2008 Olympian Joe Blow dies is a different story than 1956 Olympian Joe Blow dies.

 

Four-time Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Or [INSERT NUMBER HERE, 'CAUSE I DON'T KNOW IT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD]-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps.


[EDIT] Oops -- I didn't check the next page before replying. Jake said it better than I did.

 

Beyond how Olympians are referred to in print, I've had people correct me and other people -- in conversations -- when referring to Olympians as "former." That's obnoxious and it happens more than you'd expect.

 

Team sports such as women's soccer or hockey essentially have full time training national teams these days. Say you had a two-time Olympian in hockey and you called her a "former" Olympian, that might cause confusion with your readers that she's retired when she hasn't.

If I ever use any qualifier in front of Olympian, I use the year or the number of times they made it. Former is not a good adjective there. It's not descriptive enough.