diff --git "a/6ce135be-7576-43a1-88dd-c69d570d52d3.json" "b/6ce135be-7576-43a1-88dd-c69d570d52d3.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/6ce135be-7576-43a1-88dd-c69d570d52d3.json" @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +{ + "interaction_id": "6ce135be-7576-43a1-88dd-c69d570d52d3", + "search_results": [ + { + "page_name": "Olympic Medals by Country 2024", + "page_url": "https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/olympic-medals-by-country", + "page_snippet": "- Data current up through the 2022 Winter Olympics in Bejing, China. - Taiwan typically competes under the name Chinese Taipei. - Former countries that had the most Olympic medals are: Soviet Union (1204), East Germany (519), West Germany (243), Czechoslovakia (171) and Yugoslavia (87).Also, many athletes have participated in the games as individuals due to their political beliefs or sanctions against their host country. Finally, on a few occasions, the IOC has revoked a medal from an athlete found to have broken the rules and awarded it to another athlete. That said, here are the top 10 winners in total medals for the Summer, then Winter Olympics as of 2021. That said, here are the top 10 winners in total medals for the Summer, then Winter Olympics as of 2021. - Data current up through the 2022 Winter Olympics in Bejing, China. - Taiwan typically competes under the name Chinese Taipei. - Former countries that had the most Olympic medals are: Soviet Union (1204), East Germany (519), West Germany (243), Czechoslovakia (171) and Yugoslavia (87). Bangladesh is the most populous country that has never won an Olympic medal. San Marino is the smallest country to have won an Olympic medal, doing so in 2021. - Taiwan typically competes under the name Chinese Taipei. - Former countries that had the most Olympic medals are: Soviet Union (1204), East Germany (519), West Germany (243), Czechoslovakia (171) and Yugoslavia (87). ... Bangladesh is the most populous country that has never won an Olympic medal.", + "page_result": "Olympic Medals by Country 2024

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Olympic Medals by Country 2024

The Olympic Games (typically shortened to "Olympics") is a worldwide tournament in which athletes from all over the world come together to compete in honor of their respective countries. The Olympics are the leading international sports event, with each occurrence of the games held in a different host city. Some cities have hosted multiple Olympic events\u2014for example, Los Angeles, California (U.S.) held the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984 and is scheduled to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

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The Olympics is divided into two seasonally themed halves. The Summer Olympics includes a myriad of fair weather sports, from track and field to swimming, gymnastics, and basketball. Conversely, the Winter Olympics focuses upon cold-weather sports such as bobsledding, ice skating, and skiing. Both events are held every four years, but their schedules are currently offset by two years. Thus, the Summer Olympics will take place in 2024, 2028, and 2032, with the Winter Olympics scheduled for 2022, 2026, and 2030. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were postponed until July/August of 2021.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a partnership with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which presents the Paralympic Games, an Olympics-style event specifically for athletes with disablities. While the two organizations are technically separate entities, the partnership enables the Paralympics to take place in the same host cities as the Olympics, using the official Olympic venues and facilities.

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The IOC also puts on the Summer and Winter Youth Olympics, which cater to athletes 15 to 18 years old. The Youth Olympics uses an offset two-lane/four-year schedule similar to that of the main games, but with different host cities and venues. In addition, the Olympics are intertwined with many regional events, such as the Pan American Games and the Asian Games.

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Because several countries have formed and/or broken apart since the modern Olympics began in 1896, total medal counts can be tricky. The most notable example is the Soviet Union, which fractured into several smaller countries, including Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Moldova. The IOC had to decide which of the newer countries, if any, got credit for the Soviet Union's medals. Also, many athletes have participated in the games as individuals due to their political beliefs or sanctions against their host country. Finally, on a few occasions, the IOC has revoked a medal from an athlete found to have broken the rules and awarded it to another athlete. That said, here are the top 10 winners in total medals for the Summer, then Winter Olympics as of 2021.

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Countries with the Most Olympics Medals:

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Country
Total Medals
United States2985
Germany1083
United Kingdom965
France910
Italy773
China713
Sweden683
Japan575
Norway567
Australia560
- Data current up through the 2022 Winter Olympics in Bejing, China.
- Taiwan typically competes under the name Chinese Taipei.
- Former countries that had the most Olympic medals are: Soviet Union (1204), East Germany (519), West Germany (243), Czechoslovakia (171) and Yugoslavia (87).

Download Table Data

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Country
Total Medals
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Youth Total
United States2985118396383996
Germany1083351371361113
United Kingdom96530432933247
France91027229834089
Italy77326423827196
China713285231197187
Sweden68321422824143
Japan575186178211115
Norway56720718717348
Australia56016817721573
Russia551194169188228
Canada55114718322151
Hungary52518415818366
Finland48514915118518
Netherlands4761511551701
Switzerland381119131131
South Korea36612912111610
Austria3529312513451
Poland329829814917
Romania309909712223
Cuba23584698224
Bulgaria23055908516
Denmark21548848311
Spain17449735234
Belgium17448586821
Brazil15037427132
Ukraine14838387277
New Zealand14355355317
Greece12236454112
Taiwan12028464614
Kenya11335423615
Belarus10521374721
Turkey10341263631
Czech Republic10129333934
South Africa9127343015
Jamaica882636267
Kazakhstan7915244029
Argentina7721263038
Iran7624232925
Mexico7213243529
Ethiopia5823122321
North Korea57161724
Croatia5218191511
Slovenia52121723
Azerbaijan497142826
Estonia441411194
Slovakia42141810
Georgia4010121811
Ireland381111167
Indonesia37814153
Uzbekistan371162029
Egypt368101826
India351091623
Thailand351081726
Colombia345131619
Latvia315141212
Mongolia3021117
Portugal2859147
Nigeria27311138
Lithuania26671314
Morocco247512
Serbia2467119
Venezuela19379
Trinidad and Tobago1935113
Armenia1828813
Algeria175485
Bahamas168263
Tunisia155375
Philippines141581
Malaysia13085
Chile132741
Israel1331910
Dominican Republic123545
Uganda114434
Pakistan103342
Uruguay102261
Puerto Rico102264
Liechtenstein102261
Hong Kong92348
Zimbabwe8341
Qatar82243
Kyrgyzstan70347
Luxembourg73401
Cameroon6312
Moldova60247
Vietnam51319
Ghana50141
Ecuador53206
Singapore5122
Namibia5050
Saudi Arabia40224
Peru41303
Ivory Coast4112
Syria4112
Tajikistan41122
Costa Rica4112
Lebanon40221
Bahrain42202
Iceland40222
Jordan31113
Panama3102
Kuwait30031
Fiji32011
Grenada31111
San Marino3012
Tanzania2020
Afghanistan20021
Mozambique2101
Niger20111
Sri Lanka20201
Zambia20113
Burundi21102
Haiti20111
United Arab Emirates21011
Botswana20112
North Macedonia20111
Suriname21011
Bermuda2101
Sudan1010
Iraq10011
Burkina Faso1001
Guatemala10101
Senegal1010
Togo1001
Paraguay1010
Turkmenistan10101
Eritrea10013
Gabon1010
Mauritius10011
Cyprus10102
Djibouti10011
Guyana10013
Montenegro1010
Barbados1001
Samoa1010
Tonga1010
United States Virgin Islands10101
Monaco10011
Cambodia1
Bolivia1
Honduras1
El Salvador1
Bosnia and Herzegovina2
Saint Lucia1
Andorra1
Nauru1
Total179875796586763242288
showing: 146 rows

What is the largest country not to win an Olympic medal?

Bangladesh is the most populous country that has never won an Olympic medal.

What is the smallest country to win a medal?

San Marino is the smallest country to have won an Olympic medal, doing so in 2021.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "Which Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals? \u2013 NBC Bay Area", + "page_url": "https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/beijing-winter-olympics/which-countries-have-won-the-most-olympic-medals/2602386/", + "page_snippet": "From countries that regularly win Olympic medals, like the USA, to others still eyeing that first gold, here are the most and least decorated countries.For Tanzania, the 1980 Lake Placid Games was the one and only time it medaled at the Olympics. Suleiman Nyambui won silver in the men\u2019s 5000m competition and his countryman, Filbert Bayi, also won silver in the 3000m race. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Here\u2019s a look at the most and least decorated countries in Olympic history: Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area\u2019s Housing Deconstructed newsletter. When it comes to overall Olympic success, it\u2019s the United States and then everyone else. The U.S. has won a total of 2,960 medals in all the years of competition, according to Olympedia.org. The U.S. holds a number of records when it comes to the Olympics, including the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. The Soviet Union still sits second for total medals (1,204) and golds (473), while Germany is third in both categories (339 golds, 1,056 medals). Watch all the action from the Beijing Olympics live on NBC ... Great Britain (964 medals) and France (896 medals) round out the top five in the all-time medal standings. While there are plenty of countries that have never won a medal \u2014 and we\u2019ll get to that in a bit \u2014 there are also many that have a very small number of medals. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. \u00b7 Afghanistan\u2019s Rohullah Nikpai has brought his country its only two medals, receiving a taekwondo bronze medal in both 2008 and 2012.", + "page_result": "\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\tWhich Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals? – NBC Bay Area\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\tWhich Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals?\t

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\n\t\t\tThe U.S. leads the medal count, while some countries have yet to win a medal\t\t

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The 2022 Winter Olympics will feature thousands of athletes representing a wide variety of countries from across the globe. Some of those countries are perennial medal winners, with their flags constantly getting waved and worn by their athletes on the podium.

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However, not every country is as lucky. There are still a plethora of nations that have yet to receive a single medal at any Olympic Games.

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Here\u2019s a look at the most and least decorated countries in Olympic history:

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Which country has the most Olympic medals?

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\n\tGet a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area\u2019s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
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When it comes to overall Olympic success, it\u2019s the United States and then everyone else.

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The U.S. has won a total of 2,960 medals in all the years of competition, according to Olympedia.org. The U.S. holds a number of records when it comes to the Olympics, including the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. After earning 39 golds and 113 podium finishes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team USA now owns 1,174 gold medals, 954 silver and 832 bronze. 

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The Soviet Union still sits second for total medals (1,204) and golds (473), while Germany is third in both categories (339 golds, 1,056 medals).

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Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

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Watch all the action from the Beijing Olympics live on NBC

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Great Britain (964 medals) and France (896 medals) round out the top five in the all-time medal standings.

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Which countries have the fewest Olympic medals?

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While there are plenty of countries that have never won a medal \u2014 and we\u2019ll get to that in a bit \u2014 there are also many that have a very small number of medals. In some cases, it\u2019s a singular medal to the country\u2019s name. 

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Iraq and Sudan are among the countries that have just one medal. Iraq took home bronze in weightlifting at the 1960 Rome Olympics, while Sudan\u2019s Ismail Ahmed Ismail won silver in the men\u2019s 800m race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

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Tanzania, Mozambique, Afghanistan and Niger are among the countries with just two medals apiece. For Tanzania, the 1980 Lake Placid Games was the one and only time it medaled at the Olympics. Suleiman Nyambui won silver in the men\u2019s 5000m competition and his countryman, Filbert Bayi, also won silver in the 3000m race. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

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Afghanistan\u2019s Rohullah Nikpai has brought his country its only two medals, receiving a taekwondo bronze medal in both 2008 and 2012. Niger\u2019s two medals have come from Issaka Daborg, who won a bronze medal in boxing at the 1972 Munich Games, and Abdoul Razak Issoufou, who won silver in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Games.

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Which countries have never won a medal at the Olympics?

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There are over 60 countries that have participated but never won an Olympic medal. And there are even more that have medaled but never took home a gold.

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Bangladesh is the most-populated country that has yet to win a medal. The country has competed in 10 Summer Games and failed to reach the podium each time. Congo, which has appeared in 13 Summer Games, is the second-highest populated country to not medal yet.

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With 21 Summer and 10 Winter appearances, Monaco\u2019s 31 total Olympics without a single medal are the most of any country. Andorra, which has competed in 24 Games (12 Summer, 12 Winter), has the next-longest streak among medal-less countries.

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Which country has won the most Olympic medals at a single Games?

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The U.S. claimed a record 239 total medals at the third Olympic Games, held back in 1904 in St. Louis. The 1904 Olympics was the first Games held outside of Europe and the first time the three-medal format was used.

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The USSR has the second-highest total of medals won at a single Games with 195 at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It\u2019s hard not to include an asterisk for these Olympics as 66 countries, including the United States, boycotted the Games that year given the political turmoil stemming from the USSR. It was the first time the Olympics had been held in a communist country until the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 

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The United Kingdom picked up 145 medals, good for third-most, at the fourth Olympics, the 1908 London Games.

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Which country has won the most Olympic gold medals at a single Games?

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Not surprisingly, the U.S. has the record for most gold medals won at a single Olympics. The record was set in Los Angeles in 1984 when the U.S. took home 83 gold medals, which included Carl Lewis matching Jesse Owens\u2019 record with four gold medals and Valerie Brisco-Hooks winning three golds. 

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The USSR has the second-most gold medals at a single Games, taking 80 at the controversial 1980 Moscow Olympics. The third-most also goes to the U.S., which won 73 gold medals at the 1904 Olympics.

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\n\n\tContact Us\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "Which Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals? \u2013 NBC Bay Area", + "page_url": "https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/beijing-winter-olympics/which-countries-have-won-the-most-olympic-medals/2602386/", + "page_snippet": "From countries that regularly win Olympic medals, like the USA, to others still eyeing that first gold, here are the most and least decorated countries.For Tanzania, the 1980 Lake Placid Games was the one and only time it medaled at the Olympics. Suleiman Nyambui won silver in the men\u2019s 5000m competition and his countryman, Filbert Bayi, also won silver in the 3000m race. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Here\u2019s a look at the most and least decorated countries in Olympic history: Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area\u2019s Housing Deconstructed newsletter. When it comes to overall Olympic success, it\u2019s the United States and then everyone else. The U.S. has won a total of 2,960 medals in all the years of competition, according to Olympedia.org. The U.S. holds a number of records when it comes to the Olympics, including the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. The Soviet Union still sits second for total medals (1,204) and golds (473), while Germany is third in both categories (339 golds, 1,056 medals). Watch all the action from the Beijing Olympics live on NBC ... Great Britain (964 medals) and France (896 medals) round out the top five in the all-time medal standings. While there are plenty of countries that have never won a medal \u2014 and we\u2019ll get to that in a bit \u2014 there are also many that have a very small number of medals. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. \u00b7 Afghanistan\u2019s Rohullah Nikpai has brought his country its only two medals, receiving a taekwondo bronze medal in both 2008 and 2012.", + "page_result": "\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\tWhich Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals? – NBC Bay Area\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\tWhich Countries Have Won the Most Olympic Medals?\t

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\n\t\t\tThe U.S. leads the medal count, while some countries have yet to win a medal\t\t

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The 2022 Winter Olympics will feature thousands of athletes representing a wide variety of countries from across the globe. Some of those countries are perennial medal winners, with their flags constantly getting waved and worn by their athletes on the podium.

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However, not every country is as lucky. There are still a plethora of nations that have yet to receive a single medal at any Olympic Games.

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Here\u2019s a look at the most and least decorated countries in Olympic history:

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Which country has the most Olympic medals?

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\n\tGet a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area\u2019s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
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When it comes to overall Olympic success, it\u2019s the United States and then everyone else.

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The U.S. has won a total of 2,960 medals in all the years of competition, according to Olympedia.org. The U.S. holds a number of records when it comes to the Olympics, including the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. After earning 39 golds and 113 podium finishes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team USA now owns 1,174 gold medals, 954 silver and 832 bronze. 

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The Soviet Union still sits second for total medals (1,204) and golds (473), while Germany is third in both categories (339 golds, 1,056 medals).

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Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

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Watch all the action from the Beijing Olympics live on NBC

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Great Britain (964 medals) and France (896 medals) round out the top five in the all-time medal standings.

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Which countries have the fewest Olympic medals?

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While there are plenty of countries that have never won a medal \u2014 and we\u2019ll get to that in a bit \u2014 there are also many that have a very small number of medals. In some cases, it\u2019s a singular medal to the country\u2019s name. 

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Iraq and Sudan are among the countries that have just one medal. Iraq took home bronze in weightlifting at the 1960 Rome Olympics, while Sudan\u2019s Ismail Ahmed Ismail won silver in the men\u2019s 800m race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

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Tanzania, Mozambique, Afghanistan and Niger are among the countries with just two medals apiece. For Tanzania, the 1980 Lake Placid Games was the one and only time it medaled at the Olympics. Suleiman Nyambui won silver in the men\u2019s 5000m competition and his countryman, Filbert Bayi, also won silver in the 3000m race. Maria de Lurdes Mutola is the only athlete from Mozambique to win medals. Competing in the women\u2019s 800m, she won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and then gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

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Afghanistan\u2019s Rohullah Nikpai has brought his country its only two medals, receiving a taekwondo bronze medal in both 2008 and 2012. Niger\u2019s two medals have come from Issaka Daborg, who won a bronze medal in boxing at the 1972 Munich Games, and Abdoul Razak Issoufou, who won silver in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Games.

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Which countries have never won a medal at the Olympics?

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There are over 60 countries that have participated but never won an Olympic medal. And there are even more that have medaled but never took home a gold.

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Bangladesh is the most-populated country that has yet to win a medal. The country has competed in 10 Summer Games and failed to reach the podium each time. Congo, which has appeared in 13 Summer Games, is the second-highest populated country to not medal yet.

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With 21 Summer and 10 Winter appearances, Monaco\u2019s 31 total Olympics without a single medal are the most of any country. Andorra, which has competed in 24 Games (12 Summer, 12 Winter), has the next-longest streak among medal-less countries.

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Which country has won the most Olympic medals at a single Games?

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The U.S. claimed a record 239 total medals at the third Olympic Games, held back in 1904 in St. Louis. The 1904 Olympics was the first Games held outside of Europe and the first time the three-medal format was used.

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The USSR has the second-highest total of medals won at a single Games with 195 at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It\u2019s hard not to include an asterisk for these Olympics as 66 countries, including the United States, boycotted the Games that year given the political turmoil stemming from the USSR. It was the first time the Olympics had been held in a communist country until the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 

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The United Kingdom picked up 145 medals, good for third-most, at the fourth Olympics, the 1908 London Games.

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Which country has won the most Olympic gold medals at a single Games?

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Not surprisingly, the U.S. has the record for most gold medals won at a single Olympics. The record was set in Los Angeles in 1984 when the U.S. took home 83 gold medals, which included Carl Lewis matching Jesse Owens\u2019 record with four gold medals and Valerie Brisco-Hooks winning three golds. 

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The USSR has the second-most gold medals at a single Games, taking 80 at the controversial 1980 Moscow Olympics. The third-most also goes to the U.S., which won 73 gold medals at the 1904 Olympics.

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\n\n\tContact Us\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "All-Time Olympic Games Medal Tally Analysis", + "page_url": "https://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/medal-tally/all-time.htm", + "page_snippet": "The US have clearly won the most gold medals and the most medals overall, more than doubling the next ranked country (these figures include medals won in Tokyo 2020, updated August 2021). Second-placed Soviet Union/USSR had fewer appearances at the Olympics, and actually won more medals on ...The US have clearly won the most gold medals and the most medals overall, more than doubling the next ranked country (these figures include medals won in Tokyo 2020, updated August 2021). Second-placed Soviet Union/USSR had fewer appearances at the Olympics, and actually won more medals on average (see the 2nd table). With the addition of the 2021 data, China has moved up from 11th (in 2008) to 9th (2012) to 7th (2016) to 6th (2021). The country which has attended the most games without a medal is Monaco (21 Olympic Games), the country which has won the most medals without winning a gold medal is Malaysia (0 gold, 8 silver, 5 bronze). I agree with you in considering the ex-USSR ( Soviet Union ) as the best ever team taking in mind they only attended in 10 Olympic editions. On the other hand, why don't consider Germany as an unique team after its re-unification, if so they are the third ever successful country with 400 gold medals. E. aja Ankush Sawant (2016) All I know is that my country CUBA ROCKS, we are ranked higher in the All-Time Olympic Games Medal Tally (Summer Olympics) against ALL the Spanish speaking country of the word including MEXICO-ARGENTINA- COLOMBIA- VENEZUELA even though our population is very small compare to theirs , Plus i don't agree that a gold medal costs around $1m of investment bcz i was a Cuban national champion at one point in my youth years and i trained ( track and field ) with regular shoes and home made shorts for years before i was able to get one set by the communists party, the only advantage was being in a school for medal contender athletes where i had three meals a day guarantee, (Now i'm and USA citizen).", + "page_result": "\n\n\n\nAll-Time Olympic Games Medal Tally Analysis\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Home > Events > Olympics > Summer > Medal Tally > All-Time

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All-Time Olympic Games Medal Tally (Summer Olympics)

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Which country is the most successful at the Olympic Games? Here are the top-ranked countries in terms of total medals won when all of the summer Games are considered (including results from the Tokyo 2020 Games). There are two tables presented, the first just lists the top countries based on the total medals won, the second table factors in how many Olympic Games the country appeared, averaging the total number of medals per Olympiad. A victory in a team sport is counted as one medal.

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The USA Has Won the Most Medals

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The US have clearly won the most gold medals and the most medals overall, more than doubling the next ranked country (these figures include medals won in Tokyo 2020, updated August 2021). Second-placed Soviet Union/USSR had fewer appearances at the Olympics, and actually won more medals on average (see the 2nd table). This top-10 includes one country no longer in existence (the Soviet Union), so their medal totals will obviously not increase, however, China is expected to continue a rapid rise up the ranks. With the addition of the 2021 data, China has moved up from 11th (in 2008) to 9th (2012) to 7th (2016) to 6th (2021). The country which has attended the most games without a medal is Monaco (21 Olympic Games), the country which has won the most medals without winning a gold medal is Malaysia (0 gold, 8 silver, 5 bronze).

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rankTeam total gamesgoldsilverbronzeTotal
1United States 2810618367392636
2Soviet Union #104403573251122
3Germany *25285326363974
4Great Britain 29285316315916
5France 29226258280764
6China 11262199173634
7Italy 28217188213618
8Australia 29167177213557
9Hungary 27181154176511
10Russia 10170157178505
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# combining the results of USSR and the 1992 Unified Team (but Russia is separate)
\n* combining the results of Germany, West Germany, and the United Team of Germany (but not East Germany)

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The USSR were the most successful on average

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It seems unfair to rank countries on total medals won when some countries have appeared at the Olympic Games many more times. The following list averages the medals won per Olympiad, so the success of countries can be compared more directly. Based on this calculation, the former Soviet Union was the most successful country with 112 medals per appearance compared to the US with 94 medals per appearance. However, also to be fair, the USSR can be considered a combination of many countries.

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East Germany has been listed separately from the results of Germany, highlighting how much more successful the East Germans were compared to the rest of the country. It is not surprising what a little\u00a0state-sponsored\u00a0doping\u00a0program can do.

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The ranking in this table is based on the average total medals per Olympiad, though whether using the figure of total gold medals or total all medals, the list order is essentially the same.

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rankCountryno. of Gamesgoldtotal medalsgold medals per Olympiadtotal medals per Olympiad
1Soviet Union #10440112244.0112.2
2 United States 281061263637.994.1
3 East Germany 515340930.681.8
4 China 1126263423.857.6
5 Russia 1017050517.050.5
6 Germany *2528597411.439.0
7 Great Britain 292859169.831.6
8 France 292267647.826.3
9 Italy 282176187.822.1
10 Japan 231694977.321.6
11 Ukraine 7351395.019.9
12 Australia 291675575.819.2
13 Hungary 271815116.718.9
14 Sweden 281485035.318.0
15 South Korea 18962875.315.9
16 Romania 22903084.114.0
17 Poland 22722983.313.5
18 Belarus 713851.912.1
19 Canada 27713262.612.1
20 Netherlands 27953213.511.9
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# combining the results of USSR and the 1992 Unified Team (but Russia is separate)
\n* combining the results of Germany, West Germany, and the United Team of Germany (not East Germany)

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Related Pages

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\n\"send\nAny comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.\n

Old Comments

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Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.

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  • Just heard that the IOC banned Russia from the Olympics. So much for the idea of "fair play". I intend to completely boycott all Olympic games forever. When you are so corrupt that you are willing to use sports for political purposes, especially when you are already the undisputed leader in that arena, and the majority of people are dumb enough to allow it, the end of your civilization is at hand. How good can a sport be when the second place team is eliminated from competition, accused of wrongdoing, that the established winner has been caught doing in the past. I suspect that the US, under ownership of the pharmaceutical companies, not only has more of, and more sophisticated drugs, but has probably used the doping rules themselves to discriminate against other nations. If I was an Olympic athlete and I was told I couldn't wear the flag of my home country and that our national anthem could not be played, I would not participate. If I was an American athlete, I would boycott on moral principals, what value is there in participating in a rigged game? Of course it would be hard to pass up the payday that comes with the medals. I predict the US will make a clean sweep of the medals (statistically speaking) and the games themselves will be BORING. BOYCOTT the Olympics. (from Jon, 2017)\n
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    • You can boycott if you like and you can cry if you like but politics played no part in them being banned. It's called more than half of your athletes tested came up positive for roids. (Aurelius72 , 2017)
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  • David (2013)
    \nPete, what county's children are there that can name more than 40 countries? Almost none, please stop making yourself look like an idiot. What interests me, is the subtleness of your USSR compilation of medal earnings. How many countries did the USSR include during it's rule? What was it's population under that ruling? Well it had a population of around 293 million people in 1991 and ecompassed over a DOZEN different countries. Just as you said, a higher population will lead to a higher medal count, it seems they were merely on par if not below the USA's standards of medal earnings. To be fair.
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  • Arizona65 David (2016)
    \nHigher population is meaningless. India has almost one billion people and Michael Phelps has almost as many medals as India has won combined.\n
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    • Jacob Sawyer arizona65 (2016)
      \nCorrection, he now has more than India has ever won at a single olympic games. Go Phelps! He is consistently better than the average of 1.3 billion swimmers. That is worth somethin.
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  • Anuj Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nDude you are still not comparing apples with apples. You have to look at the amount of funding, infrastructure, coaching etc. Can the 1.3 billion in India get the same facilities that the Americans can avail?
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  • William Alexander Plumbasket Anuj (2017)
    \nYou cannot get through to American folk my friend. The Americans have always thought that they are better than everyone else on the planet, I just laugh at them.\n
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    • Whites Are Victims William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
      \nI'm American and I laugh at them too. Party on! Black 'Mericuh William
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    • Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
      \nBecause we so obviously are.... Fedex Routes William Alexander Plumbasket (2017). You laugh because it makes you nervous that we are... I want to appologize for that.Sorry. - Lee Jones William Alexander Plumbasket (2020) Not as hard as we laugh at you
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  • William Alexander Plumbasket Jacob Sawyer (2017)
    \nMan you're thick. It is down to funding - GDP, that breeds success, not the gene pool, population, you moron. Unless of course, some American people think that they are a superior race (lol). Another certain country had similar ideas in the last century, it did not finish too well for them - did it now. American exceptionalism springs to mind. It is common knowledge, that a percentage of the American population suffer from 'Delusions Of Grandeur' - You're just one of those ignorant statistics.
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  • Chase Sam William Alexander Plumbasket (2018)
    \nThere is not a singular American race is you have not been up to date with American news (Which you dont need to be)there is still a lot of racism and things that divide the different races of America
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  • Gary Johnson William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nWilliam, genetics totally matter for sports. Why do you think blacks always dominate any track related sports? But go ahead and ignore science and brag about how wonderful the crumbling unites kingdom and storm yourself off to your own ethnicity
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  • GuanKim Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nHe did it with Chinese traditional cupping. Is that banned?\n
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    • Grossman GuanKim (2016)
      \nClearly not. But, he did do it without the Chinese traditional state-funded doping.
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  • Rahul Biswas Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nok americans are good at sports,we get it,but you live in a fool's world if you think you're a superior race or something just cuz you have more medals. A fish will live his whole life believing it's a moron if you judge his intelligence by climbing trees. And why can't USA produce enough scientist to run NASA and stop hiring indian brains? just saying...
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  • Etesvous stupide? Rahul Biswas (2016)
    \nFor being from such an intelligent stock of people, I thought you would have already known that American is not a race, it's a nationality. Americans are comprised of many different races of people (including Indians). Also, the "Indians" you claim run NASA, are actually Americans. You see, except for rare cases of exception, you have to be a U.S. citizen to work at NASA.
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  • Chase Sam Rahul Biswas (2018)
    \nWell that last point also comes down to the school system and how the government doesn't fund schools as much as they should Asian and Indian parents tend to push their kids way harder than Americans because there are ways to be successful other than doing good in school and being smart. Americans dont end up in poverty when they do not do well in school lol
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  • Rmclarkjr . Rahul Biswas (2017)
    \nindia is a filthy mess. They need the British to come back and clean the place up again.
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  • Da Dude Rahul Biswas (2017)
    \nMost of these "Indians" are American. America isn't even close to just white people you know...
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  • Motherfugger Rahul Biswas (2016)
    \nUSA is the ONLY superpower for a reason. just saying
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  • Rmclarkjr . motherfugger (2017)
    \nThe rest of the world should know when they have been conquered either directly or indirectly...
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  • Georgios Kappos motherfugger (2016)
    \nWOW... 300 years as a superpower and there is the "REASON" behind it... imagine what Greeks, Egyptians, Mongolians, Persians (yes that's Iran), Ottomans, Chinese and a dozen others can say given that they run at one point or another empires for 1000's of years. They must have had a bigger "REASON" to say the least. :)
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  • Paul Homsy Georgios Kappos (2017)
    \nGeorgios, times have changed. Things move very much faster. These old civilizations and cultures would not have lasted as long in a modern era.
    \nTo find fault without thinking before posting is a sign of envy. Typical of people critical who lash out using any subject. The U.S is like the gentle giant in a schoolyard full of punks. There are times when the gentle giant kicks butt. It seems that the U.S is always under attack.
    \nThe U.S has far less than 300 years as a "superpower" but it is holding on in a universe that is moving at least 100 times faster than a thousand years ago if not 2000 or 3000 years ago. No one is perfect but the U.S has done a lot of good and it is disappointing to see all the criticism. Americans can dig heels just like anyone else and they are more self reliant than anyone else. You should never forget that. It is what made this country. You would be more appreciative if you had a sense of the size, complexity and efficiency of the American infrastructure which you do not and cannot interpret in a short visit or two. It takes years to understand the phenomenon America is.
  • \n
  • Rmclarkjr . Paul Homsy (2017)
    \n100% the truth. Now who wants a beating?
  • \n
  • William Alexander Plumbasket Georgios Kappos (2017)
    \nNot even 300 years as a 'superpower' - more like about 100 years. American people suffer from Delusions Of Grandeur, they always have done. I do agree with some of what you are saying though.
  • \n
  • Abhishek Srivastava William Alexander Plumbasket (2020)
    \nExactly I guess the rise of both USSR and USA was 1918 the end of first world war , 3 superpowers woth UK which lost the status in 1945 and USSR in 1991 now with China rise as superpower in 2020. America may celebrate but they now have a tough competitor and they will use India here for the benfit
  • \n
  • James Buza William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nWe have clearly made those delusions a reality
  • \n
  • Paul Homsy William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nMr. Plumbasket. The Brits have won many wars and battles because they are disciplined loyal troops but they invariably always lost in parliament because of their own "delusions of grandeur", the disdain they harbored all over the world for those they had battled who weren't exactly like them. A sense of pride bordering on insane provinciality. The distance they kept. Never mingling and always thinking of England as "home". Very commendable but clearly showing at the time of the colonies the inability to truly leave your shores with an open mind. As for the great cultures that lasted thousands of years, times were different and nothing traveled as fast as things do today. Your put down attitude towards the U.S is the purest reflection of your lack of gratitude. The U.S saved Europe twice. At least take the high road and show the class you think you have by being thankful. You're a silly poser. Bar stool prophets are a dime a dozen. The majority of the last two or three generations have been more open minded, better traveled, it isn't the miles you log but the eyes you use to actually see, the new generations in general see the world with a very different optic than the old era colonialists of which you seem to be a vestige without much of a rudder. Luckily the newer generations of your country and most others have evolved well beyond your current capabilities which they show by being far more citizens of the world than the likes of you ever were regardless of what distant moons you traveled under. They have joined the world while those who wallow in their past perceived glory do a disservice to their country in their boorish inability to see beyond their local beaches.
  • \n
  • Batman Georgios Kappos (2016)
    \nYou just did the same thing, assuming that NASA only hires Indian brains? You correct about assuming their a superior race, because countries all over the world play different sports. The olympics are very western, most of the sports are popular among westerners. And if Indians are apparently so smart, how come they haven't started their own space program?
  • \n
  • Gyan Batman (2017)
    \nThough I agree with your first line but just for your knowledge an answer for your last line Batman .. either you don't read news apart from Western world or you were asleep for last 5 years otherwise you would not have undermined India and India do have a space Agency called ISRO just google and has their own indigenous space programs too including chandrayaan-1 (moon mission) in 2008 and Mangalyaan (Mars mission ) in 2014 became Asia's first country to successfully reach Mars orbit and at cheapest cost so pls correct your facts
  • \n
  • Rmclarkjr . Gyan (2017)
    \ncall a Mountbatten back!
  • \n
  • William Alexander Plumbasket Batman (2017)
    \nNASA have people working from all over the world - it would be a no brainer to suggest otherwise.
    \nIf it was just Americans, well, I would not like to imagine that outcome.
  • \n
  • William Alexander Plumbasket motherfugger (2017)
    \nWithout British colonisation - well, you'd still be wiping your bottoms of leaves.
    \nI hate to say this, but I really wish that my ancestors had not colonised America at all, you'd still be a nice & quiet country then.
    \nOnly a complete idiot would even imagine that they are superior human beings, oh look, only an American would think that. It was only last Century that certain individuals from another country, thought that they were 'superior human beings' - it didn't finish too well for them, according to the history books ;-) Maybe there is a lesson to be learned by you American folk. Have a nice day :-)
  • \n
  • MattTempco William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nOh, and we did kind of kick your butts in the revolutionary war
  • \n
  • MattTempco William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nwhat would you have done without America in the world wars?
  • \n
  • Fedex Routes MattTempco (2017)
    \nSpeaking German lol
  • \n
  • Eric William Alexander Plumbasket (2018)
    \nBro the U.S is made up of many nationalities. More than almost every country in the world. And yea the U.S is better at sports except soccer. But we do lack in other areas. We dont think we're the best in everything. We just take pride in what we do.
  • \n
  • YOYOYO William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nNo, no, no, the British, France, and Spanish colonized America.
  • \n
  • Rmclarkjr . William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \ndon't call crying for help next time then...
  • \n
  • Da Dude William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nNow who's the arrogent fool suffering from "delusions of grandoure" as you so called it, quoting some other probably arrogent fool.
  • \n
  • Paul Homsy William Alexander Plumbasket (2017)
    \nAnd who thinks of themselves as s**t hot now? When you say "some Americans think they're a superior race". Unlike many Europeans and you in particular, hardly any American thinks of himself or herself as part of a superior race. I believe you cornered the market on that one. You're projecting your own feelings. Big fail. Americans are far easier to get along with than a stuck up jerk thinks. You impose your own self-limitations with your narrow views and actual feelings of superiority. Stop gathering your information from tabloids. We didn't invent them...You did.
  • \n
  • Swagat Rath Rahul Biswas (2016)
    \nIgnorance is Bliss. Do you have any data on how many indians are working for NASA? Dont go by the pesudeo patrotic-social posts.
  • \n
  • William Huang arizona65 (2019)
    \n22% of the people in India are in poverty. Only dedicated athletes can try to make the olympics and a lot of people have to work their butts off to stand a chance at living.This proves that india actually has a smaller percent of people who actually can compete and want to.
  • \n
  • William Alexander Plumbasket arizona65 (2017)
    \nI will make this simple for you, being as you are an American.
    \nThere is a few determining factors that makes America a leading medal winner, are you ready? "GDP/funding/academies" - it really is as simple as that.
    \nNow, some American people will claim that they are superior human beings (arrogance/ignorance) or whatever you want to call it. Now, certain individuals, from another country, had similar ideas last Century. As I am sure that you will appreciate, it did not finish too well for them. Maybe there is a lesson for you folk.
    \nIt seems that a moderate percentage of Americans suffer from 'Delusions Of Grandeur' - It is noticeable, especially after reading your comments.
    \nHave a nice day :-)
  • \n
  • Skandh soni arizona65 (2016)
    \ni just want to add one logical perception regarding the medal tally. why there are so many number of medals in some sports like swimming and only one gold in team sports like hockey and football. i think there should be some kind of parity between these medals. in the sports which require the contribution of whole team, they give only one gold while some sports like swimming, they are giving many golds. i think there should be some parity regarding weightage of gold medals so that one gold in football or hockey will not be compared with one gold of any particular kind of swimming sport. because the efforts which the whole team has made to win a team sport gold is much more than a single athlete's effort in sport like swimming
  • \n
  • Kut Thomas skandh soni (2016)
    \ni disagree....being that football/soccer, basketball, hockey, or whatever it may be is a weighed team sport swimming and track takes more because there are different regions within it or categories. you don't get a medal for best header in football or best dunk or best check in hockey. However best 100m best butterfly swimmer and best javelin all require different skills and isn't played in a game format.
  • \n
  • Dencio skandh soni (2016)
    \ndefinitely right bro.!
  • \n
  • Ricardo arizona65 (2016)
    \nFunding counts more then population something the US does in abundance....
    \nOthers obviously can't compete if they don't having means for funding.
  • \n
  • Niico100 arizona65 (2016)
    \nIt's not meaningless - but its one important variable (there are others - such as money invested in sport - and whether you are a rich democracy). India is not a rich democracy so doesn't have much money to spend on sport. A gold medal typically costs around $1m of investment.
  • \n
  • BrilliantIdiot niico100 (2019)
    \nIndia do have money. If they took some of the money spent on cricket and invested it in sport acadamies, who knows what the results may be.
  • \n
  • Georgios Kappos motherfugger (2016)
    \nomg... i keep on seeing your comments... hey mate... Greek here and of course broke as a nation! Imagine what... we are named broke by your american -ups international- institutions, yet we own less that 1% that you do. So let's be honest, there is only one thing you are clearly better... weapons and willingness to use them on innocent children in order to secure your economic interests. From there the equations are really easy to be followed... and yes they lead to superpowers!!!
  • \n
  • Brian Holland niico100 (2016)
    \nwhile your point is made clearly, you have mis-spoke. If you are referring to the US for comparison to India... Neither country is a Democracy. The US is a Republic and always has been. Read the Pledge of Allegiance. " To the Republic for which it stands"
  • \n
  • AMERICAN WORKER Brian Holland (2016)
    \nThere isn't a true democratic country in the world, a actual Democracy is where every civilian of that said Democracy votes and decides policy of the government, which if it were in place today it would literally be impossible to accomplish hardly anything because of the vast different number of opinions which would make the political process impractical and almost impossible, the United States is a Democratic Rebuplic which is the same and is a base from which all Democratic governments use, it's neither a true Democracy nor a true Republic it takes the best parts of both to create a government with the ability to have the people participate like a democracy and have the most simplicity and efficiency of a republic.
  • \n
  • Pix042 David (2014)
    \nThe USA took lands off the Indians so we don't know how things might have panned out in that territory if one culture had not subjugated another.
  • \n
  • Jacob Sawyer pix042 (2016)
    \nUs Cherokee Indians are extremely good at Javelin throw and Ping Pong. Watch out....2020....for the Native American team of athletes! LOL (yes im Cherokee)
  • \n
  • Alexander DeLarge Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nIf you were Cherokee you'd call yourself just Cherokee or native not an Indian.
  • \n
  • Talmadge Williams pix042 (2016)
    \noh I Know Thorpe still holds records in American Football too and he was Native American.. Can you Imagine if the native American had not been conquered by the Europeans.. imagine 7 foot tall man wrestling in the olympics.. Yes the native Americans were tall people. All along the eastern seaboard from Hudson bay to Florida. to the Gulf of Mexico down to Mexico were these Giants
  • \n
  • Melanie Talmadge Williams (2016)
    \nMy maternal great grandmother was full-blooded Choctaw, and she was very short, under 5'. Choctaws were generally short people. Quite a few Native American tribes were short people. My family is from the coast of the Gulf Of Mexico, all branches of it.
  • \n
  • Gillette00 David (2016)
    \nIf everyone has the idea a larger population gives you a better chance of getting Olympics medals, please explain how the top few populous countries India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh did so badly perennially.
  • \n
  • Francis Gillette00 (2016)
    \nPopulation is important, but GDP is more important. Taking these 2 things together, you can easily come up with a formula to predict (at least explain) the differences in medal tallies in different countries.
  • \n
  • Grossman Francis (2016)
    \nAgree that GDP should be looked at more favorably than population. Something to consider though, many medalists from poorer nations train in the US or attend US universities. Therefore, they have access to the same training and facilities as the US athletes.
  • \n
  • Badd_KungFu Francis (2016)
    \nsoooooo what happens when you add the fact that team usa is not sponsored by its govt, while many of its competitors are?
  • \n
  • Francis Badd_KungFu (2016)
    \nThe individuals such as those in Team USA not sponsored by states are rewarded financially far more handsomely. Pluses and minuses in both system.
  • \n
  • Ankush Sawant David (2016)
    \nThere are many countries where people can't name countries. Just because you don't know doesn't mean nobody knows. You Americans didn't even know Vietnam until the war \ud83d\ude02
  • \n
  • Eli Ankush Sawant (2016)
    \nLmao why did we need to, it's like a king knowing the names of all the peasants in the kingdom, and then out of nowhere the peasant threatens to move to another kingdom which threatens the size of our kingdom and by that we take notice of him
  • \n
  • Ricardo Eli (2016)
    \nBut you ain't no king lol
  • \n
  • Ian (2016)
    \nWhy do you include West Germany in the German totals but not East Germany? This seems arbitrary. East Germany was unified with West Germany into Germany, so if you accept West German medals, you logically have to accept East German medals.
  • \n
  • Nick ian (2016)
    \nIan, I can see an argument for including West Germany's medals with those of the united Germany as in effect the continuing German state between 1945-89. However, to include those of East Germany as well would be unfair as in many events East and West Germany together would have had twice as many competitors as other countries so distorting the results, e.g. athletics - six German competitors per event compared with three from the USA or USSR. In any event East Germany's medal success is so completely tainted by systemic drug abuse I'm certain Germany wouldn't wish to be credited with these medals. Many ex-East German athletes, particularly women, are still paying the price for the state sponsored abuse of their bodies.
  • \n
  • Mohamed Benjamin Hoffmeister (2016)
    \nJust because you are given the privilege of posting does not meant you also get the privilege of posting false accusations.... First dont compare kenya with any of the countries you mentioned.... KENYA does not have the financial muscle that the others have to have a sophisticated doping system.... But whats more important is each of the mentioned countries have had medals stripped from their athletes for doping at the olympics.... Now read this NOT A SINGLE KENYAN HAS BEEN STRIPPED OF THEIR OLYMPIC MEDAL EVER.... as for doping yes kenyan athelets of no particular value in athletics or recognition have dopped.... And also every other country has but non of our medal winners.... So pleaee watch what you say about our athletes
  • \n
  • Beau Ravn Ap Gwyddon Benjamin Hoffmeister (2016)
    \nVery odd including Australia as a 'bigger nation using doping'. We have less than 1/10th of the population of the US at around 25 million compared to 350 million and I believe we have only ever had 3 IOC doping charges. Historically, Australia is one of the cleanest nations when it comes to doping, as well as being one of the most successful medal winning nation per capita of population at 7th in the world overall and number 1 in the world for nations with populations over 10 million. USA is 36th in the world for medals won per capita of population out of a total of 64 nations. Russian Federation is 41st and China is in 56 place.
  • \n
  • TunaSalad (2017)
    \nSomeone tell me why Russia is listed as the soviet union
  • \n
  • Rob Admin TunaSalad (2017)
    \nthey are not, USSR/Soviet Union and Russia are listed separately. You can see them both on the complete list which has been recently updated: http://www.topendsports.com...
  • \n
  • DarkHorseSki(too many upvotes) (2016)
    \nI think there is a problem with the AVERAGE chart in that there were far less possible medals to win in the early Olympics prior to the USSR participating. You'd need to weigh the number of possible medals into each olympics before calculating the average.
  • \n
  • Rob Admin DarkHorseSki(too many upvotes) (2016)
    \nI agree, factoring the number of available medals would improve this analysis .. I've just got to find the info and do the calculations.
  • \n
  • DarkHorseSki(too many upvotes) Rob (2016)
    \nYeah, you'll need a total medals awarded number per Olympics. And that has to be actual results because trying to shortcut things would throw off the numbers thanks to the early Olympics not having the Gold/Silver/Bronze... and some sports, like Judo, awarding 2 bronzes...
  • \n
  • World Rob (2019)
    \nYou forgot to mention that during the 70s and 80s the United States was not allowed to have professional athletes. The Soviet Union did allow them and that drastically affected the medal haul for the USA. That skewed the results, So the USA still has the most impressive haul. Why didn't you mention this? Are you Canadian or something?
  • \n
  • Carlos Mendoza (2015)
    \nVery interesting your web page. I agree with you in considering the ex-USSR ( Soviet Union ) as the best ever team taking in mind they only attended in 10 Olympic editions. On the other hand, why don't consider Germany as an unique team after its re-unification, if so they are the third ever successful country with 400 gold medals. Congratulations again and greetings from Lima - Peru.
  • \n
  • Jacob Sawyer Carlos Mendoza (2016)
    \nKeep in mind USSR's success had partly to do with the commandeering of about 15 or so countries through force, and state sponsored doping/forced drug use.
  • \n
  • Not to downplay their success to be disrespectful, but yes, their stats are nowhere comparable to the stable and consistent success of countries like USA and China.
  • \n
  • Realitycheck Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nBut, that doping tho.
  • \n
  • Jon Carson (2016)
    \nOh the irony. Just reading through all the comments and one must chuckle. Instead of comparing one country with another. Look at the years in which the global climate has been anything but peaceful and yet as a group we are able to come together on a world stage and enjoy the ideals of the best man has to offer in spirit and in physical abilities. Granted many have "cheated" and standards of what is acceptable has changed. So much so that many athletes of 50 years ago would have not passed doping regs of today if used back then. Stop looking with a finite mindset, but rather seeing the showcase of mankind simplified and unified under one roof regardless of race, region, creed, religion or anything else that may drive us a part. We are human and we can cohabitate that's the beauty of these games. Regardless of medal counts. We all win when we strive as one race in the greatest race of all...the human race.
  • \n
  • Brool (2020)
    \nomg this is so cool i never knew this because i am learning about this in socialology
  • \n
  • Maxwell (2020)
    \nThe numbers speak for themselves !
  • \n
  • Vlad Rangotchev (2019)
    \nThank you for the nice article. I went ahead and searched for the medals per capita because countries with 10 or a hundred times the population of my country have fewer medals. I was born in Bulgaria and I am proud of how high they rank with a population of only 7 million people. This is pretty embarrassing for countries like the States, Russia, France, and Germany.
  • \n
  • Good Krypollo (2019)
    \nGood job coming up with a completely random statistic to put Russia on top. USA is the most athletic country on Earth by a large margin. Get over it.
  • \n
  • Lilly Good Krypollo (2020)
    \nnz is the best face it
  • \n
  • Drizzt228 (2018)
    \nThe USSR athletes were aided by goverment sponsored performance enhancement programs and their athletes were basically profesional athletes they were given goverment jobs that allowed them to get payed to practice for their olympic events all year round
  • \n
  • Joker (2017)
    \nthe men who built america started the entire world motivated. who invented cars? who started the rail road? who built refineries? who invented the television? who invented pc's/ which led to a battle over who's was better... now hand held computers? we [usa] may not have been the first, but we definitely started the world we live in today!!!!!
  • \n
  • BrilliantIdiot joker (2019)
    \nrailroad: the Brits
    \nautomobil: germany
    \nTV; US
    \nRadio:Italy, Marconi
    \nPolish pharmacist and inventor Ignacy \u0141ukasiewicz established an oil refinery in Jas\u0142o, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Poland) in 1854.
    \nelectricity: Ben franklin
  • \n
  • Dalton Corbin (2017)
    \nAmerica is obviously the best y'all morons. Stats prove that. Hahahaha USA USA USA
  • \n
  • Hank W (Sypher117) (2017)
    \nCan we even count the USSR? I mean it's 2018 and these guys are still trying to get away with doping. Imagine what they got away with back then.
  • \n
  • Rahul Biswas (2017)
    \nWhoa,so many people were angered by my previous comment months back. No wonder Trump is your President. Anyways,going back to how intelligent Indians are,ISRO,the Indian Space Research Organisation sent an orbiter to Mars at the cost of 1/10th of what Nasa did. Oh that burns,I'm sorry. And to the ignorant Brits,who don't even know that we do have a space program,let me ask you one question,do you have your own space program? And colonisation of India,yes,I'm coming to that,aren't you even ashamed of directly causing the famines in Bengal and what not. Oh and please come and talk to me when you have the heart to return our kohinoor diamond back. Yes the mighty Queen's Kohinoor diamond was stolen from India. So thats the history of Great Britain...Apply Burnol to burned areas please. \ud83d\ude05\ud83d\ude05
  • \n
  • Mal (2016)
    \nMedals from Olympic events from years ago are all tainted by the possibility of drug use. Even today everyone is aware of the cheating that goes on and not only by the athletes themselves but by coaches, drug checkers and even Nations. People like the great Paavo Nurmi, winner of 10 Olympic gold medals in the 1920s, used a drug containing the male hormone testosterone to boost his performance and right up to today's latest drug takers, the need to 'win at all costs' will mean that some athletes will stoop to drug taking if available. The East German Olympic team and also I suspect most of the Soviet Union teams of the past were certainly using drug enhancement, so to use gold/silver/bronze medal count as some sort of sporting league table is to be taken with a BIG pinch of salt.
  • \n
  • Manuel Falla (2016)
    \nNice table, a much fairer comparison. You just need to update the numbers for Russia, it has won 149 gold medals in total and not 147.
  • \n
  • AMW (2016)
    \nWow!!! How did reading this article turn into a pointless comments about race. You all going to add religion and politics next?!?
  • \n
  • Arizona65 (2016)
    \nIf life wasn't a competition why did god call us The Human Race?
  • \n
  • Justin Dismore (2016)
    \nThis is what it comes down to....America it's the shiznit and all other countries suck...shouldn't qatar have the most medals because that's the richest county in the world ship money doesn't mean anything cause they never win so what it comes down too is every country sucks except America.....MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!!!!
  • \n
  • Jillimy Jilikers (2016)
    \nThe unfair advantage that USA, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and a lot of western countries have (but these in particular) is the greatest mixture of races which produces the best athletes. Add to that the superior funding and infastructure, stable environment and there's no comparison.
    \nThey(predominatly white north European) just take credit for what a mixture of African, South American, Asian and East European genes contribute. When you take all this into account they should be even more dominant. It still doesnt match the achievements of Soviet Union/Russia (which was a mixture of far more similar people),China and many other countries for that matter.
  • \n
  • BrilliantIdiot Jillimy Jilikers (2019)
    \nThe US is one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world. yes, they have serious racial issues. So do other countries
  • \n
  • Mmotherday (2016)
    \nWow. Two sentences in and it goes political. Nice. Why bother with the Olympics or even a song by Coke. No one really cares anymore. If they ever did. How do we go from naming countries to subjugating Native Americans? Geez...
  • \n
  • Godisalljust (2016)
    \nwhat about medals per capita?
    \nWould not that be a more accurate measurement of success?
  • \n
  • Rob Admin Beau Ravn Ap Gwyddon (2016)
    \nOn this site I analysed the total medals won all time relative to population size, while that site you referenced only compares for each Olympiad.
  • \n
  • Benjamin Hoffmeister (2016)
    \nso Germany is #3 (GER+FRG+UTG) AND #11 (East-Germany) in your list (East-Germany would still be #9 in Gold-Ranking) // by the way, some athletes won medals for East-Germany AND Germany -> so why split them? -> if you add them up there will be 3 nations with each more than 1000 medals...
  • \n
  • Vargaati79 (2016)
    \nWeighted Medals per Capita All Time: So Finland is the best :) lol
  • \n
  • Nick (2016)
    \nThere is no country in the world called GB. I presume you are all thinking of the UK. The ignorance of the morons who organized the UK's team is mind-blowing. I am embarrassed that the good people of Northern Ireland have been so shoddily treated.
  • \n
  • Rob Admin nick (2016)
    \nThe British Olympic Association and the IOC both refer to the team from the United Kingdom as Great Britain, even though it is the team of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The team also represents the Crown dependencies (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) and all but three of the British overseas territories.
  • \n
  • Sabin Bhattarai (2015)
    \nBeing such small nation in comparison to USA and Soviet union team GB is in fourth place so Britain is great.
  • \n
  • Brian (2015)
    \nI am an American and am proud of our success, I am also proud of all the people of the world for doing well. GB for being much smaller, Australia for being even smaller in population than GB, wow some impressive totals
  • \n
  • Please (2015)
    \nplease make a top ten medals winner not country a athlete man or woman (im danish i need it at school)
  • \n
  • Aleks (2013)
    \nHehe, Sweden and Hungary here is very great success to these nations, because comparing to the 50-100 million inhabitants "superpowers" (I didn't talk about China), Sweden and Hungary is around 10 million people, and the last century their population moved between 7-10 million. This is what we can call real sport nations! Congratulation to Hungary and Sweden for this brathtaking accomplishments!!!!!!
  • \n
  • Remember: NOVEMBER! (2016)
    \nMedals per athlete REALLY shows which nation is most committed!!
  • \n
  • ATL (2016)
    \nRank Country Medals Population Population
    \nper Medal
    \n1 Finland 303 5,407,040 17,845
    \n2 Sweden 491 9,490,683 19,329
    \n3 Hungary 489 9,962,000 20,372
    \n4 Denmark 191 5,580,516 29,217
    \n5 Bahamas 12 353,658 29,471
    \n6 Norway 152 5,005,700 32,932
    \n7 Bulgaria 215 7,364,570 34,253
    \n8 Jamaica 73 2,705,827 37,066
    \n9 Estonia 34 1,318,005 38,764
    \n10 New Zealand 113 4,432,620 39,226
    \n11 East Germany 409 16,111,000 39,391
    \n12 Switzerland 189 7,870,100 41,640
    \n13 Australia 494 22,880,619 46,317
    \n14 Cuba 217 11,241,161 51,802
    \n15 Grenada 2 110,821 55,410
    \n16 Netherlands 281 16,731,770 59,543
    \n17 Romania 305 19,042,936 62,435
    \n18 Bermuda 1 64,237 64,237
    \n19 Czechoslovakia 143 10,318,000 72,153
    \n20 Trinidad and Tobago 18 1,317,714 73,206
    \n21 Belgium 148 10,951,266 73,995
    \n22 Great Britain 836 62,262,000 74,476
    \n23 Iceland 4 319,575 79,893
    \n24 Slovenia 23 2,057,540 89,458
    \n25 France 702 65,350,000 93,091
    \n26 Greece 115 10,787,690 93,806
    \n27 Austria 87 8,452,835 97,159
    \n28 Tonga 1 103,036 103,036
    \n29 Mongolia 26 2,736,800 105,261
    \n30 Italy 573 60,776,531 106,067
    \n31 Virgin Islands 1 106,405 106,405
    \n32 Latvia 19 2,070,371 108,966
    \n33 Belarus 84 9,461,400 112,635
    \n34 Netherlands Antilles 2 227,049 113,524
    \n35 Yugoslavia 90 10,348,473 114,983
    \n36 Canada 294 34,771,400 118,270
    \n37 United States 2,496 313,382,000 125,553
    \n38 Lithuania 25 3,192,800 127,712
    \n39 Germany 605 81,831,000 135,257
    \n40 Poland 279 38,501,000 137,996
  • \n
  • Bill (2016)
    \nAverage per Olympiad is stupid. 2016 awards over 900 medals. As example. 1936 Olympics awarded about 300 total. If someone wanted to bother with a more true comparison then do percentages of total awarded.
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  • Rob Admin bill (2016)
    \nComparing the average number of medals per Olympiad was better than just total medals, your suggestion of using the percentage of total is even better. I will be updating these tables after Rio so I can do that analysis too.
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  • Niico100 (2016)
    \nYes the USSR were the most successful - largely to their widespread use of banned drugs. Just like Russia & China today - drug cheats.
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  • Chris_Frost1979 niico100 (2016)
    \nFrom the last couple of Olympics 11 gold medalists from Russia lost their gold medal because they have been proven dopers. Guess who they share that number rank one with? The US of A....
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  • So yeah Russians dope and cheat, but historically no other (successful) country, was really honest either and the US is way up there with Russia and the late east Germany when it came to the use of performance enhancing drugs.
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  • Matthew (2016)
    \nUsa has 300 million more people then Australia! Fair enough you have 2400 medals which is 5 times as many as us but you have 13.5 times the population. Clearly Australia is the best!
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  • Benjamin Hoffmeister Matthew (2016)
    \nsweden has less inhabitants and more medals won
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  • GuanKim Matthew (2016)
    \nThe secret is kangaroo steak and Foster Beer!
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  • Jacob Sawyer Matthew (2016)
    \nClearly? The gold medal stats don't go up just based on the population rising. What is wrong with you. You had a flash of an idea and then you post it as fact even though there is zero evidence, zero chance to prove it and zero actual information that you just provided.
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  • All you did was put some black pixels on my white screen in a certain formation, that's all I can really give you credit for on that one.
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  • Jakey (2016)
    \nhey gb are the best!
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  • Gbgb Jakey (2016)
    \nConsidering our climate, the distinct lack of facilities, that's pretty impressive ... I hope the poorer countries with their athletes who are struggling to achieve their aim every day ... start to come up the ladder ... make it much more interesting - maybe it's wishful thinking but sport can change things!!
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  • Daryl Jakey (2016)
    \nhow is gb the best, when clearly the US leads he pack with 1000's of medals, 3x the number of medals in less games than gb.. the US RULES everything - superiority!
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  • Pete daryl (2016)
    \nI think that you are being delusional Daryl. If you pro-rata the medals vis head of population, the team USA is doing very badly. It is fairly typical of an American not to recognize anyone from out side of their country. They only know where Iraq is as the invaded it. When i lived in the US, kids knowledge of geography was both shameful and incredible as they could name but less than 15 % of the countries on a world map. Need I say more
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  • James Willey Pete (2016)
    \nWhile population size does provide you with a potential for more talent, it is not some guarantee that you'll win more medals. Otherwise China and India would be untouchable, no? GDP, and a sport's popularity in the country in question, are far more potent factors in medal counts, if you ask me. Having your country able (GDP), and willing (sport's popularity), to support their athlete's daily & training needs, without them having to cut massive chunks of time out of preparation efforts to support themselves or their families, is far more important in winning medals than having another 1/1,000,000,000 type talent residing in a person with no access to proper training or equipment/facilities. Phelps wouldn't be who he is without the people around him, that not only taught him, but allowed him to live a life that didn't require he give up swimming to help support his family. Pretty ironic how you try to paint someone as delusional and myopic, while using a method of determination that amounts to just about nada. The kids where you come from must not be taught critical thinking skills, I'm sure if I visited only 15% would be able to parse out that you're full of it. Need I say more?
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  • Grossman James Willey (2016)
    \nSport's popularity is an important factor that I do believe people ignore. I can't speak for many other countries, but in the United States, many of our very best athletes you will find in the NBA and NFL, not utilizing their abilities for the Olympics (except for Olympic basketball which we have dominated throughout history). For example, the US once did extremely well in Olympic boxing. This is not the case anymore. With the sport dying in the United States, I think many who could box at an elite level are taking the football/basketball route.
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  • Tellis Pete (2016)
    \nThe US has over 4 times the gold medal ratio of GB which is close to the population ratio. And the reason why Americans world geography knowledge is lacking is due to the fact that the country is so large they seldomly need to concern them self with other countries. Compared to most others where a trip through multiple countries would be the equivalent of going through a couple states. As well as our surrounding countries being places most Americans want to avoid.
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  • Ankush Sawant Tellis (2016)
    \nYour argument for lack of knowledge about other countries itself shows how Americans are ignorant
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  • Jacob Sawyer Ankush Sawant (2016)
    \nAmericans are ignorant? Aren't you using websites like Facebook, YouTube and Gmail/Google? Those are American creations. And even if you don't use those websites, you are using the internet right now, which was invented by the US military back when it was called the ARPANET.
  • \n
  • Have you ever seen a Hollywood movie? Your name Ankush makes me think you're of Indian decent, are you not? So even your own "Bollywood" scene is simply a copycat to Hollywood...yet we are the ignorant ones? Why are we so damn influential if we are ignorant?
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  • BTW, the airplane. Ever heard of that one? Yeah....the Wright brothers did that one too, in North Carolina. Ever heard of that? We have, it's in the USA.
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  • How come we are completely dominating the olympics every time if we are missing something major in our brains? How come
  • \n
  • Oh, and the computer you're using...probably American. We created Apple corporation (not the most ignorant people are they?). Do you use iPhones or iPads or anything? I bet you do or someone you care about does, and I bet they benefit from it too! Ohh, that must hurt.
  • \n
  • The reason why people like you think that Americans are stupid is because of something you saw on television or some little clip of something. If you actually come to the USA, and speak to the people, you will find a different story.
  • \n
  • We know how to build strong communities of happy and successful people, we know how to throw our trash in the garbage, we know how to say "hi" to people as we pass by on the sidewalk, we know how to focus our minds and create great things without massive corruption and widespread chaos.
  • \n
  • Try that out for size in your country, and then lets talk about whose ignorant.
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  • Try getting your average Indian person to put their trash away, or respect a woman as equal to a man.
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  • Does your country innovate? Do you create things that help and change the world? Do you? Even if you do, so do we.
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  • I've been to Madras and Cochin, and I know that's not even the half of the terrors of Indian culture and city life.
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  • Come visit USA. We won't lick our lips and look you up and down to decide how much your outfit is worth and how much of your stuff we can steal.
  • \n
  • GuanKim Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nThe US is made up of best brains from other countries that they enticed. I daresay the US Americans are poached people.
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  • James Willey GuanKim (2016)
    \nLol! Why do they come here, Guan? If we're all so ignorant and stupid why should they come to get the higher education we offer?
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  • There are plenty of ignorant people here, but if you think that holds true for "Americans" as Ankush does, and not the Chinese & Indians, you're a bigger fool than the people you're imagining.
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  • Spencer Bringhurst Ankush Sawant (2016)
    \nAmerica is a great country, and easily the best one to live in. I laugh when all of you talk about usa's medals compared to the population when China and India are doing much worse in that matter. I don't care what country you live in, America is still much greater. It is a blessing to live in America
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  • GuanKim Spencer Bringhurst (2016)
    \nNow here is a toad in the well!
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  • Tyler Kaye Ankush Sawant (2016)
    \nAnkush, as an american and someone who has lived in multiple countries; Scotland, France, India, Singapore and the argument laid out by Tellis is not all that far fetched. It is completely illogical to assume that an American would know the geographical or political make up of every country. Just because someone from one country knows something about the US that is not reciprocated is not an equal comparison. People learn and remember things that are important to their way of life and their surroundings.
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  • E. aja Ankush Sawant (2016)
    \nAll I know is that my country CUBA ROCKS, we are ranked higher in the All-Time Olympic Games Medal Tally (Summer Olympics) against ALL the Spanish speaking country of the word including MEXICO-ARGENTINA- COLOMBIA- VENEZUELA even though our population is very small compare to theirs , Plus i don't agree that a gold medal costs around $1m of investment bcz i was a Cuban national champion at one point in my youth years and i trained ( track and field ) with regular shoes and home made shorts for years before i was able to get one set by the communists party, the only advantage was being in a school for medal contender athletes where i had three meals a day guarantee, (Now i'm and USA citizen). What is your opinion on this.....
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  • GuanKim Tellis (2016)
    \nChina is even larger in population and land mass. Her people are well-travelled and can beat the US hands down in geography
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  • Jacob Sawyer GuanKim (2016)
    \nWell traveled? Less than 3% of Chinese citizens have passports. And more than 35% of Americans have passports. I am an American, and I have personally been to 72 countries. I know tons of Americans that travel. Anyway, there's no need to have a competition but since you've shared false facts like everyone else on this comment area, I have no choice to show you some stats to prove you are completely mistaken. 3% Chinese passport holders and 35% American passport holders. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
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  • Philly Rampardson Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nAbout 40,710,000 Chinese passport holders
    \nAbout 111,615,000 US passport holders
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  • GuanKim Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nSome twenty-million Chinese travel as tourists round the world. Europe welcomes them. The US welcomes them. The Nihonjin welcomes them. Many countries rolled their red carpets to woo the Chinese. It is common knowledge not many US Americans travel outside North America.
  • \n
  • Jacob Sawyer Pete (2016)
    \nMichael Phelps (an American) currently has 3X as many gold medals as GB does right now as a whole. In his career, he has 25 medals, 21 of them gold. Making up stats on countries' abilities to know geography? It would seem silly to someone like me that you have no actual data, but I suppose when you are so ignorant that you don't even know what you don't know, then you're kinda stuck in a trap. Anymore questions guys?
  • \n
  • GuanKim Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nYes. Why are you jingoistic and bigoted?
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  • Benjamin Hoffmeister Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nGermany has not that much more population, but a lot more medals :p
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  • Dant (2015)
    \nIt's kinda wrong to include separate entries for Russia, the USSR and to omit Russian Empire's results. The USSR was the official successor of Russian Empire, and Russian Federation (Russia) is the official successor of the USSR, even in the IOC, if I'm not mistaken. But certainly in the UN and FIFA.
  • \n
  • Joss (2016)
    \nEast Germany and the Soviet Union (much like Russia today) were under a state sponsored testosterone and steroid doping program during those "Golden Years". I don't see how you can count any of those medals that were gained through cheating?
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  • Georgios Kappos Joss (2016)
    \nthe same way you count USA medals when 80% of proven doping scandals are directly attributed to the great country of Basketball Dreamteam that in 2004 threaten to withdraw from competition when a doping control was requested
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  • Joss Georgios Kappos (2016)
    \nThe USA is the country that pushed for doping tests. The IOC is corrupt and is only interested in making money for their own individual executive board. They bankrupt countries that hold the games and support and legitimize totalitarian regimes that murder and jail their own people. Like oh, Let's say Russia and China for example.
  • \n
  • The USA stops police's their athletes and tried to prevent doping. If an athletes in the USA cheats it is their own individual decision. In Russia and China the cheating is 100% run and sponsored by their government. Their athletes have no choice.
  • \n
  • GuanKim Joss (2016)
    \nChina and Russia is not for the USA to legitimise. They do not owe their your existence to the US. You have made accusations based on your Cold War mentality. Really, only orangutans make such kind of noise.
  • \n
  • Joss GuanKim (2016)
    \nThe IOC is the international Olympic Committee not the USA. You should read what is being said before you respond. The IOC dangerously validated Adolph Hither's regime in 1936. Flash forward to February, 2014 when they did the same to Putin's regime that prior to that was starting to fail. He then proceeded to attack and annex the Ukraine. China used their recent Olympic games to jail all of their civil rights attorneys. Most are now missing completely missing. China also involuntarily displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed their homes to build their Olympic venues.
  • \n
  • Jeremy GuanKim (2016)
    \nI'm sorry GuanKim, but after reading your comments I must say - an orangutan would embarrass you. Your comments are extremely dimwitted. Ignorance is bliss though, buddy! Ignorance is bliss.
  • \n
  • Georgios Kappos Joss (2016)
    \n"bankrupt countries that legitimize totalitarian regimes that murder and jail their own people" I guess as opposed to "bankrupt USA that legitimize totalitarian regimes (worldwide) that murder and jail their own people (and when they can't we give a hand.. or two... or 10.000 long live the US army).
  • \n
  • Georgios Kappos Joss (2016)
    \nWondering if you wish to change your comment after the latest WADA and USADA revelations of "good" doping. By the way it is interesting that health issues that allow such a "good" doping arise only in US, Britain, German teams...
  • \n
  • Jacob Sawyer Georgios Kappos (2016)
    \nOh please, the USA dream team could be anyone any time, even other American NBA teams! Doping or not has nothing to do with their success. Doping doesn't help accuracy or teamwork or attitude, which our players excel at.
  • \n
  • Georgios Kappos Jacob Sawyer (2016)
    \nhmmm... okay... so as long as you do have the best team in talent or strategy or anything... a little doping is ok. Interesting idea!
  • \n
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", + "page_last_modified": " Fri, 15 Mar 2024 03:57:09 GMT" + }, + { + "page_name": "Most Successful Countries of All-Time - Per Capita", + "page_url": "https://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/medal-tally/all-time-comparison-pop.htm", + "page_snippet": "Generally, the most successful ... Olympic medals won are also some of the biggest countries in terms of population. This may seem unfair when comparing the success of countries, as the bigger countries have a larger population pool from which to develop athletes. Using per capita data to rank the success of nations at the Olympic Games is an alternative to the popular way of ranking based on just total gold medals ...Generally, the most successful countries in terms of Olympic medals won are also some of the biggest countries in terms of population. This may seem unfair when comparing the success of countries, as the bigger countries have a larger population pool from which to develop athletes. Using per capita data to rank the success of nations at the Olympic Games is an alternative to the popular way of ranking based on just total gold medals won. Before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Finland was the leading country for medals won per population, but the recent success of the small nations of Bermuda, Bahamas and San Marino has upended the lists. The two tables below show the ranking based on (1) gold medals won, and (2) total medals won. If included, the East Germans would be the top ranked per capita medal winning country based on average medal counts, having produced a large number of gold medals relative to its population in its five appearances at the Olympics between 1968-1988. East Germans won 153 gold medals in five Olympic Games and with an estimated population of 16.1 million at the time, the average gold medals per million population would be 1.90. But if you see the exact numbers, you can find that Hungary continuously was on the top, which means always was in the best 10-12 after Olympics, as now: if you see the final medal table after London2012, you clearly find that who is the first really small country in the top of the table: the 9th Hungary (Between 60 millions Italy(8.) and 23 millions Australia (10.). Another is that Hungary wins major of its golds in water games (swimming, canoe, water polo etc.) even they don't have see, it's a continental country.", + "page_result": "\n\n\n\nMost Successful Countries of All-Time - Per Capita\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Home > Events > Olympics > Summer > Medal Tally > All-Time > Population

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Most Successful Countries of All-Time: Per Capita

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2021 UPDATE: Bermuda, population 62,000, won its first-ever gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, placing it 4th on the all-time gold medals per-capita list. Also in 2021, tiny San Marino with a population of fewer than 34,000 won three minor medals, making them the least populous nation to ever take home an Olympic medal.

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Generally, the most successful countries in terms of Olympic medals won are also some of the biggest countries in terms of population. This may seem unfair when comparing the success of countries, as the bigger countries have a larger population pool from which to develop athletes. Using per capita data to rank the success of nations at the Olympic Games is an alternative to the popular way of ranking based on just total gold medals won.

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Below are tables of the top countries based on the total all-time medals won during the Summer Olympics (including Tokyo 2020 data), ranked relative to the nation's population (latest UN figures from 2019).

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See the complete medal list and population data from which this analysis is derived, and also a discussion of different ranking systems. We have also calculated lists based on medals per GDP.

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Small Island Nations Are The Best

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Before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Finland was the leading country for medals won per population, but the recent success of the small nations of Bermuda, Bahamas and San Marino has upended the lists. The two tables below show the ranking based on (1) gold medals won, and (2) total medals won.

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Table: Top ranked teams based on GOLD MEDALS per million population

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Atop the list is the Caribbean island country The Bahamas, with their eight gold medals from sailing and athletics (two added in Tokyo 2020), and with a current population of fewer than 400,000 people. For even smaller countries like Bermuda and Grenada, a single gold medal is enough to get them into the top ten.

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rankCountryGoldest. populationtotal gold\n
\n/million pop
1 Bahamas 8389,48220.5
2 Hungary 1819,684,67918.7
3 Finland 1015,532,15618.3
4 Bermuda 162,50616.0
5 Sweden 14810,036,37914.7
6 Norway 605,378,85711.2
7 New Zealand 534,783,06311.1
8 Grenada 1112,0038.9
9 Jamaica 262,948,2798.8
10 Denmark 485,771,8768.3
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Table: Top ranked teams based on TOTAL MEDALS per million population

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Tiny San Marino has yet to win a gold medal, though their three medals in Tokyo has shot them to the top of the list of total medals per capita.

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rankCountryTotal Medalsest. populationtotal medals
\n/million pop
1 San Marino 333,86088.6
2 Finland 3055,532,15655.1
3Hungary 5119,684,67952.8
4 Sweden 50310,036,37950.1
5 Bahamas 14389,48235.9
6 Denmark 2055,771,87635.5
7 Bulgaria 2247,000,11932.0
8 Bermuda 262,50632.0
9 Norway 1605,378,85729.7
10 Jamaica 872,948,27929.5
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The Caribbean is the place to be

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As pointed out in several intelligent comments about the above results, I have come to realize that the figures above may not best represent per capita medals. The data does not account for the number of appearances of each country. For example, it is not fair to compare the total medal count of the UK who has appeared at all 28 Olympic Games with China, who has appeared only 10 times. A better analysis would be to base the analysis on the average number of medals won per attendance, not on the total medal count. After crunching the numbers after the 2021 Olympics, there are a few significant differences to the lists above.

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Table: Top ranked teams based on AVERAGE GOLD MEDALS per million population

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Small island nations top this list. The Bahamas added two gold medals to their tally in 2021, while Bermuda won their first-ever Olympic gold medal at their 19th appearance at the Games, when Flora Duffy\u00a0won the women's triathlon. The small nation of Grenada won its first medal, a gold, at the 2012 Olympics, in its eighth appearance at the Games.

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We have listed only currently competing countries. If included, the East Germans would be the top ranked per capita medal winning country based on average medal counts, having produced a large number of gold medals relative to its population in its five appearances at the Olympics between 1968-1988. East Germans won 153 gold medals in five Olympic Games and with an estimated population of 16.1 million at the time, the average gold medals per million population would be 1.90. There is no doubt that the East Germans had some talented athletes and a very well organized sports development program, though it is now known that systematic doping took place which would account an unfair boost in their medal count. Also considering it is no longer in existence as such, I am happy to ignore the East German results, which leave The Bahamas as the most successful country per capita.

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rankCountryNo. OlympicsGoldest. populationAve No. GoldsAve Gold
\n/million pop
1 The Bahamas 178389,4820.51.21
2 Grenada 101112,0030.10.89
3 Bermuda 19162,5060.10.84
4 Kosovo 231,873,0001.50.80
5 Finland 261015,532,1563.90.70
6 Hungary 271819,684,6796.70.69
7 Estonia 13101,325,6480.80.58
8 Sweden 2814810,036,3795.30.53
9 Jamaica 18262,948,2791.40.49
10 Slovenia 882,078,6541.00.48
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Table: Top ranked teams based on AVERAGE TOTAL MEDALS per million population

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Bahamas jumped up to top this list after the 2016 Olympics but five years later, even with a few more medals, they are down the list. After the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the tiny nation of San Marino has jumped to the top thanks to three medals in their 15th appearance at the Games.

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San Marino would even beat the mighty East German team if they were included, with 409 total medals in five Olympic Games and an estimated population of 16.1 million, average medals per million population for East Germany would be 5.08.

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rankCountryNo. Olymp.total medalsest. populationAve Total MedalsAve Medals
\n/million pop
1 San Marino 15333,8600.25.91
2 Grenada 103112,0030.32.68
3 Finland 263055,532,15611.72.12
4 Bahamas 1714389,4820.82.11
5 Estonia 13361,325,6482.82.09
6 Hungary 275119,684,67918.91.95
7 Sweden 2850310,036,37918.01.79
8 Bermuda 19262,5060.11.68
9 Slovenia 8282,078,6543.51.68
10 Jamaica 18872,948,2794.81.64
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Table Notes:

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  • The data includes all medals won at the summer Olympic Games (including Tokyo 2021). The original medal list source: Wikipedia.
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  • The population data was extracted from the Wikipedia page: List_of_countries_by_population, which contained the most recently known population data.
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Further Analysis?

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Of course there are also some other issues with the current analysis. In most cases the most current population data is used for analysis here, even though many of the medals were won during earlier Olympics were the population would have been lower. The assumption is that the relative populations between countries is similar over time, but this is probably not always the case. This analysis also assumes an even distribution of medals over time, which is also not correct. Finland may historically be a good performing country per capita, but they have not been successful as they have been in the past.

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Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.

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  • I can't think of any real occasions where kiwi's have cheated. Britten motor bike technology was miles ahead of the others, but being clever isn't cheating. Using aerodynamic pods in the 1984 Olympics in Kayaking was deemed illegal, but the kiwis won 3 or 4 kayak golds without them anyway. Not sure what we cheated in to get almost as many golds as Aus at the London Olympics. Don't think we cheated when we won the Softball world champs back from Aus last year. Rowing and track cycling also going very well, without drugs (unlike some Aussy league teams). Couldn't help but bite back!! Taylorkavanagh (2014)
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  • Is NZ still a country or finally & officially a territory of Australia ?\nBig mistake on Australia's part. Mick Scott Taylorkavanagh (2015)
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  • Australia still is a crown colony of Great Britain and the queen, not even an independent country right? Kew Mick Scott (2017)
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  • The last thing the people of Straya would want is for NZ to be part of your struggling country. Let's face it.. we would end up taking it over via "hard work" running it properly and kick all the whinning/moaning aussies into the desert and then build a big fence. It's also the last thing Kiwis want because your our big sisters and we respect you from time to time. Steve Ward Mick Scott (2016)
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  • Shut up I'm from New Zealand, where are u from so I can say you ment to be another country. Also you must be the thickest person to live, look at a map, and do some study on the world. Unknown Mick Scott (2016)
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  • Australia is a country? Thehawkreturns Mick Scott (2016)
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  • Hungary also have much less population before 70's, and especially before 2nd WW. (around 7,5-8 million). But if you see the exact numbers, you can find that Hungary continuously was on the top, which means always was in the best 10-12 after Olympics, as now: if you see the final medal table after London2012, you clearly find that who is the first really small country in the top of the table: the 9th Hungary (Between 60 millions Italy(8.) and 23 millions Australia (10.). Another is that Hungary wins major of its golds in water games (swimming, canoe, water polo etc.) even they don't have see, it's a continental country. Third is that a comment said earlier that perhaps the Scandinavians are the best sportsmen because these countries over the top. If you see postilion of Hungary, they are alone: no any neighbor country have same performance. It's funny joke, that "have here or there something in the water", here really have but I don't think, that water can win any gold medal: the people doing this, continuously from 1896 to 2012. Nice tradition! Balazs Sandor (2015)
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  • The reason large countries do worse in Medals Per Capita is because, after a certain point, say a population of about 40-50 million, having more people doesn't really create better athletes. You just get repetition of ranges of athletic ability, and the law of diminishing returns kicks in. A country as large as China could be smaller or larger by several hundred million people, and the number of medals won would hardly be affected. U2u2u2 (2016)
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  • It would also be worth considering the number of people in a country physically able to compete. Many poorer African countries have high populations, but equally high incidents of poverty, hunger and disease. It is hardly fair to compare these countries with countries like Finland and Hungary which have a comparatively able population. The lack of funding in many developing countries (owing to more pressing problems like widespread starvation) should also be considered. Steve (2015)
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  • The Soumi & Magyar are @ the top NO MATTER how you slice it - Hmmmm! Dhorvath57 (2014)
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  • Suomi, Magyars (Hungarians) and Estonians rule the top >> Finno-ugristic phenomenon? Tibi dhorvath57 (2014)
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  • What is interesting is that the countries with genetic populations that have been relatively isolated in Europe for extended periods of time are leading the list by huge statistical margins. Gene Doc tibi (2015)
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  • Their are only two genetic populations that have been relative immobile geographically and genetically isolated since before the 10th century: the Scandinavian Population(now Sweden, Finland, Norway) and the Magyar populations (original Kingdom of Hungary that occupied the Carpathian Basin of Europe now: Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine,Bosnia/Herzegovina).
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  • Both genetic population survived genetically isolated for ~1000+ years (pre-9th century to early 1900s) and where best well know as raiders/mercenaries for over 1,000 years.
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  • They also distinguish themselves from other "warrior populations" in that they largely operated during the Iron Age in Europe, and lived/died/reproduced based on strength, stamina, and hand eye coordination needed to handle the weapons/horses used in Iron Age Warfare.
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  • Most other pure genetically isolated "warrior populations" were using Stone Age weapons that require more brut strength but less coordination to use effectively.
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  • Your genetic evaluation is completely wrong and not to mention completely ignorant since the most isolated European nations in the past were Sardinia and Basque.
    \nmy suggestion pick up a book and start reading. Ricardo Gene Doc (2016)
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  • But NZ cheats, so their records don't count. They've been doing it ever since they used wide combs to beat the Australians at shearing and let's not forget the 2011 Rugby World Cup where France were totally ripped off. Then again they got their come uppance in the last America's Cup. It took an Aussie (how bad was it that he had to sail for the US?) to pull back defeat from the jaws of victory. No wonder they breed so many sheep because they all bleat! Ha Ha Ha Balanced people though. Chips on both shoulders. Mick Taylor (from the Top End) (2013)
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  • Aussies are bad loosers, and atrocious winners. The latter of which to be fair, they lack experience. So they've got an excuse. And they're good at excuses, I'll give them that. I guess they've had a lot of practice. Alan Dempsey Mick Taylor (from the Top End) (2016)
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  • Kind of answer you'd expect from an Aussie. Carry on with the way your going and you'll get every thing you deserve you sad sad excuse for a alien he..he..he.. lol William Rangi Mick Taylor (from the Top End) (2015)
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  • I'm late to this but I think only considering population is misleading. Successful countries with huge populations will never look as good as these countries mostly because there's a finite amount of medals to be won. For example, the Olympics has 302 total medals or thereabouts I believe. Even a country like the USA wins most if not all the medals, it wouldn't matter because of its 320 million population. I prefer to use size of contingent and total medals available. I think this is more reflective. You'll never convince me the countries in this (a country with one medal but a small population doesn't prove much) list are *more athletic* than the United States. Or the UK, Germany, Russia, France, Italy or Australia (all with large populations (or medium in the case of Aus.) who get hurt by this method in my view). Greetings from Canada. SuperbFlab (2016)
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  • You kindly forget the level of health and obesity that renders X amounts of the populace unable to pursue sports carrier and advance competivity to even higher levels, and also seem to forget that modern sports need exhausting amounts of resources to just keep them afloat, not even talking about healthy growth and education of new generations. So in the end if you are actually wanting to look at a whole picture, the smaller the country by capita, the larger the feat while producing medals in such an event. Khaos Cualdawath SuperbFlab (2016)
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  • There is a problem here with just counting the medals. A country like the US having two or more competitors in the same race is a bit outlandish. There must be a system established to identify countries that have beaten the odds to win gold, if you want to identify winners by countries. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Canada won the most gold. However, all US internet locations boasted they came first for the most medals. Fred Khaos Cualdawath (2016)
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  • Now you're just expanding the criteria possibly needlessly. Obesity rates are near impossible to come to any uniform standard; plus it disregards of that subset would any of those people be athletes. It's basically a moot or inconsequential point since it's all probably all discounted anyway. I do not understand your final point as it correlates to your first assertion. I see little or no connection if I read it correctly. What would be helpful is, and this may strengthen your point and perhaps impact my original argument, is what do countries spend on amateur programs (I've struggled to find reliable any statistics on this). In fact, this may be a more useful criteria than a vague term like 'health' and obesity. Cheers! SuperbFlab Khaos Cualdawath (2016)
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  • \nFinland in summer games?? Lol, you seem confused a little bit with winter games, I guess. Robert Ikanov (2020)\n
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    • You would be surprised, Finland have been very successful in the past SUmmer Olympics, particularly in track and field events. Check out Paavo Nurmi who won 9 gold medals himself. Rob Admin Robert Ikanov (2020)
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  • You should take out the data for the Winter Olympics. The Greeks did not have ski races. These games should not count since most all winter sport athletes are not elite level athletes as measured by any empirical levels of strength (Olympic lifts, vert,40m time, etc.) or vascular fitness (VO2 Max). Look at American Sean White, circus acts are not sport. Then you have a very clear winner. Hungary. UnfortunateTruth (2014)
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  • rhythmic gymnastics is a joke, as is anything that requires 'artistic' or 'creativity'.
    \nPurge olympics of anything that cannot be timed or counted (ie anything that cant be faked with biased judges). Bob Newb UnfortunateTruth (2016)
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  • UnfortunateTruth (2014)
    \nThese are fake counties that where created by socialists just the last 100 years. These were all once part of the Kingdom of Hungary 1,100 years prior: Bosnia and Herzegovina,\nRomania,\nSerbia,\nSlovakia,\nSlovenia,\nUkraine.\nAdd these medals to Hungary's total, since all these people are of Hungarian decent, subtract out the Winter Olympics, which is just the old Nordic Games, not the true Olympics and it is a very clear picture.\n
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    • This is all factually not true and your \"clear picture\" is muddy LOL. It seems you have close to 0 clue of what are you doing so you better stop and hide as it is laughable. BEst, Tomas (Feb 2024)
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    • the human species originates from central africa, so all the medals from hungary should be added to kenya. Superswagg UnfortunateTruth (2015)
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    • I am probably too dense to grasp the answer to my question. I am an American that was born in the Czech Rep. My question is how come Slovakia, which of course was part of the now defunct Czechoslovakia, have a very similar language to the Czech's and yet are from the Hungarian decent? Jon Sipal UnfortunateTruth (2016)
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    • Only Slovakia and the one you forgot Croatia was part of the Hungarian Kingdom in their entirety. The rest -besides Romania- took small chunks from Hungary in 1919, but saying they were once fully part of Hungarian crown is far fetched. Sm8 UnfortunateTruth (2016)
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    • with two thirds of hungary carved off that is a lot of small chunks.... lol Bob Newb sm8 (2016)
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    • As you can see above I mentioned Slovakia and Croatia in their entirety and beside Romania which took a large chunk, Transylvania. The rest were taken by neighboring countries Austria, the Ukraine, and Serbia, hardly one third. But yes ALL together was two thirds. Sm8 Bob Newb (2016)
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  • From 1902 to today Sweden's population increased by about 4 million and Finland's population increased by just under 3 million. During that same time Australia's population increased by 18 million, so if you use 2012's population to calculate past Olympic medal wins then the data is skewed. A better way might be to calculate to the gold or medals per capita for each country at each Olympic game and then average these by the number of Olympics each has participated in. Natalie (2016)\n
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    • I agree, it would be better though much more difficult and time consuming to find the population data for each year of the Olympics. Rob Admin Natalie (2016)
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  • Peter (2016)
    \nObviously your data is erroneous because you don't take into account winter Olympics in which countries with colder climates (snow/ice) will do better than, say, Grenada! Also, how much money does a country spent on training the athletes ... coaches and equipment are expensive too!
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  • Steve (2016)
    \nHow about another table showing the number of medals per number of athletes?
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  • Sean (2016)
    \nAs mentioned, there are a lot more textures to this statistic. There were early Olympics where a "combined" team were entered. If my memory serves me correctly the first two were just open to whoever could get there. Which is one of the reasons Scandinavia is over represented. Again, I think the early Olympics in Sweden and Antwerp were over represented by Scandinavian countries. Similarly, at the St Louis Olympics half the events had only US entrants etc. You could go on. You should only really use recent Olympics and exclude the show pony events like basketball, tennis etc. which shouldn't be there anyway and are only there to sell tickets.
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  • Emily (2016)
    \nSurely, Australia would have to be no. 1, because they are the smartest, best looking awesomest people in the world. Incidentally also rather up themselves. Watching the commentary is embarrassing. In the words of one channel 9 commentator, when a swimmer got silver by one 100th of a second, ol' mate actually made a comment asking if it's even fair that they have to split the gold and silver, when the other guy pointed out that they wouldn't be complaining if the situation was reversed as in one swimmer's win in the 2008 Olympics. Australia is a beautiful place, with good people in general, but terrible sports people who cannot accept a defeat, and consistently count chickens before they hatch, only to whinge, make excuses, or abuse athletes who 'failed' by getting a silver. Pleeeeaaase!
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  • Peter Lohan Emily (2020)
    \n"but terrible sports people who cannot accept a defeat". You've just described 99% of successful sports people.
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  • Istvan_from_hungary (2016)
    \nI think, it's impossible to work out an absolutely objective method to compare the performance of countries on the Olympic Games. What is sure (not forgetting extremely high political efforts and doping): (1) Olympic successes express national traditions, and (2) mostly they have positive impact on the fame of a country. Of course, as a Hungarian, I'm happy and proud that a country with one of the lowest GDP in Europe has always been and, in spite of growing competition, is still among the best performing countries. And a technical remark: countries with too low (say, under 1 million), or too high population (say, exceeding 50 million) cannot be valued properly on a linear scale. One gold medal for Liechtenstein cannot be compensated by any big country. Perhaps a logarithmic function of medals would be less distorting. Anyway, be proud of your country's successes, if any, and don't be too despaired for failures. All nations on the world are equally talented in sports. Successes mostly depend on the sport policy of your politicians and a little bit on good luck.
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  • Drd (2016)
    \nSome countries have a consistently high medal count per capita (Slovenia) but have only been in existence for a short period of time so the analysis skews against them. Consider adjusting for the length of time a country has been competing as an independent entity. The other alternative is to count medals from that region. The Slovene athletes were very successful when they were part of Yugoslavia - count the medals of the Yugoslav athletes that were from Slovenia in the historical slovene count.
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  • Hindrek M\u00f6ls (2016)
    \nStatistics gives hope to humanity.
    \nIn a healthy body is a healthy mind.
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  • Andrew (2015)
    \nI think GDP is a very good way to get an fair indication. I also like the relative team size suggestion, but perhaps even more relevant would be a combination of both - % of national GDP spent on sending the team to the Games. This would be more meaningful than a simple "$ spent per medal" calculation (though this might also be interesting) as it might indicate the relative importance of success to a particular country , while at the same time allowing a country like the US with a massive GDP to climb back up the rankings a bit if their team selection is at least somewhere in the same ball-park in terms of "spare cash thrown at the event". Though I realise the intrinsic difficulties in locating such figures.
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  • John Wright (2015)
    \nRanking medals according to GDP can also be misleading as many of the athletes from poorer countries train in the US college system and thus receive all the assistance those programs provide.
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  • Steve (2015)
    \nI have done a table showing the number of athletes per medal. but ONLY for these 2012 games in London. I don't have all the data necessary to do an all time table like that. It's interesting, but still not the complete answer. Botswana for example, is at the top of the list, but they only had 4 athletes there in London, and because they won one medal (Silver), they have 4 athletes sent per medal ... the lowest on the list. My table looks at the total medal count though, not just the Gold medals. My point is that there is no one way of definitively measuring the success of countries at Olympic Games. I wonder however, if maybe a formula could be found, that incorporates Poulation, number of athletes and GDP all in one. Perhaps athletes as a percentage of population? Minute percentages they would be though, of course. And somehow including GDP in the mix also. Any budding mathemetician or statistician out there that wants to try that?
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  • UnfortunateTruth (2014)
    \n...Also if you consider a good 1/3 of Olympic athletes winning medals are of Hungarian decent in the first place, but would not know it because they are either raised in America or have been brainwashed by their socialist communist masters to think they represent some fake nation that was created in the last 100 years and ends with an "ia". Look at a map of Central Europe drawn before the 1900s and you will clearly see what group of people has a genetic predisposition to competing in athletics.
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  • Norbert (2015)
    \nFinland? Hungary? Estonia? Adding Estonia's golds won during the Soviet times, the 3 most successful countries are these. I tell you a secret guys, these countries are Europe's largest non-Indo-European minority, the Uralic family. Pretty lucky guys, we are. Don't misunderstand, even though it looks like, it's not about genetics, because the mixing with other tribes in the past millenniums left almost invisible similarity in the DNA. It's just an interesting fact.
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  • Wade Laurence Sullivan (2014)
    \nKiwi's have always been harder than Aussies.. You call your selves diggers..\nWe are warriors
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  • Smileyfacechief Wade Laurence Sullivan (2014)
    \n"Warriors" lol coming from a country that's not even considered on Australian levels when it comes to sports. Btw don't even try and mention the "all blacks" because rugby in Australia isn't really a popular sport. Australia is better than new Zealand in almost every area expect for rugby and shotput.
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  • The kiwi smileyfacechief (2015)
    \npfft bro we beat yous in rugby and league oh and basketball oh yea in cricket and softball. heck if we wanted to enter the ausie rules comp we would take that out as well. not to mention your ufc stars are mostly kiwis
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  • Gene Doc the kiwi (2015)
    \nAustralians are mostly descendants of English convicts that where relocated due to prison over crowding between 1788 and 1868.
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  • Though Australia is a large diverse country now, there is not a significant genetic difference between the majority of the Australians and natural citizens of the UK and their Olympic performance overtime is similar....Nothing special
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  • Ross manley Gene Doc (2016)
    \nno true ... most Australian's ...pioneers, farmers, inventors, creators
    \nwere free settlers. Celts, Britons, Anglo Saxons .. They sailed for months to their destinations. Starting from nothing, then building one of the most advanced White Christian Nations Cultures on earth in less than 100 years. Suggestion ... do some research before spouting the tired convict line.
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  • DS1294 the kiwi (2015)
    \nAustralia have beaten NZ in Cricket (We have the Trophy to prove it), Basketball, Field Hockey, Soccer, Futsal and Rugby League (Again WC win). The logic that NZ is better through Domestic Leagues is flawed as there are Aussies and Internationals playing in those teams.
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  • DS1294 the kiwi (2015)
    \nActually the Australian National Team have beaten NZ in Basketball and Cricket (WC Final). The logic that NZ is better simply due to being top in the Domestic leagues in Soccer and Basketball are flawed as there are already Aussies and other nationalities playing in those teams so they don't count.
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  • Matt Kav DS1294 (2015)
    \nNew Zealand are outright best in the world in Rugby Union, Rugby Sevens, Rugby League (at the moment), Softball, Surf life Saving, Rowing, several sailing world champs, 2 kayaking world champs, top equestrian riders. Per capita we are best in the world in Hockey (mens and womens), Cricket, track cycling, world no1 women golfer, Scott Dixon - multiple indy car winner, current Le Mann 24 hr champs, World shotput champ Valerie adams.....bleat, bleat, bleat....and hard to beat.
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  • DJS94 Matt Kav (2016)
    \nBest per capita in Field Hockey? lol NZ haven't even won anything in Field Hockey. Australia's Men have won the Field Hockey WC 3 times, Cricket WC 5 times, Rugby League WC 10 times, Union 2 times and 28 Davis Cup Titles. Australia's Women have won the Cricket WC 6 times, Field Hockey WC 2 times, 1 Basketball WC and 11 Netball WC. So now tell me, apart from Rugby is there any sport NZ really dominates Australia in?
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Even Older Comments

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  • I am a Statistician so here is my view on many points raised. (from Taylor Kavanagh, NZ, Sept 2012)
    \n1) the per-capita statistics above are highly erroneous as they only use 2 factors current population and total medals won. The current population has no relevance for many counties to the population that won medals at early Olympic Games.
    \n2) Factors such as number of medals available at each Olympics and number of countries participating and their populations then have not been considered. It was much easier to win medals at the early Olympics as there were a lot of medals available and far less countries competing for them.
    \n3) Team size is irrelevant. A country will qualify and send all athletes that they can. If a country of 10 million only qualifies 1 athlete and he wins a medal then the population of 10 million produced that 1 medal winner. A 100% success rate for that team is statistically meaningless.
    \n4) Per-capita calculations do not favor small countries. If the USA, China, India, Russia etc were sufficiently dominant they should win all the medals between them and no small countries should win anything. If a small country wins a medal against the odds they deserve to be recognized as achieving highly per capita.
    \nI am currently producing a spreadsheet that accounts for all relevant factors (population of each country at the date of each Olympics, number of countries represented and the total population represented at the Olympics, number of gold medals available.\nAfter completing the analysis on 13 of the Olympics so far the standings are as follows (for the number of times the allocated gold medals a country has won):
    \nFINLAND = 13.14 times their allocated gold medal haul
    \nNEW ZEALAND = 11.98 times their allocated gold medal haul
    \nSWEDEN = 6.8 times their allocated gold medal haul
    \nHUNGARY = 6.68 times their allocated gold medal haul
    \nAUSTRALIA = 3.25 times their allocated gold medal haul
    \nBased of more recent Olympic results, New Zealand is likely to take the top spot as in several recent Olympics Finland have won very few gold medals. However it is very clear that New Zealand and Finland are clearly the most consistent overachievers at the summer Olympics.
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  • Ayeah! HUNGARY IS SIMPLY THE BEST! Am sorry guys try harder :p (from Kati, 3 Sept 2012)
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  • Here's a point no one else has made.\nPer capita is actually slightly biased against larger countries.\nIt seems fair but it isn't.\nHere's why.\nChina is the most populous country, with 1,344 mill citizens. If any country with a population of less than 1/300th of china's = 4.5 million gets 1 gold medal, then to equal that country, china would need to get all the remaining 300 or so gold medals.\nHowever, there are around 80 different states with a population of less than 4.5 million. If ANY of these states gets a gold medal, then China can NEVER be number one in the rankings per capita. Fair enough you say, because to get 1 gold with only 4.5million people is the same as China getting 300 golds with 1344 million people.\nBut look again. How many people actually had a shot to get the gold medal which beats China? ANYONE from ANY of the 80 states could have done it. It doesn't matter which country they come from so long as the total pop. size of the country is less than 4.5million.\nBut the total population inside all the 80 small countries is a lot more than 4.5 million. It's about 121 million.\nAssume the 121 million only gets 1 gold medal between them.\nSo 79 small countries come last, but 1 small country that has the gold medal beats china (and probably every other sizeable country) ... Another way to refute 'per capita' \u00a0is as follows:\nDivide the 121 million people up into 121 million separate countries. Then every single time a person out of the 121 million gets a gold medal, china would need to get 1344000000 gold medals to break even with that 'country' .\n(even though china's population is only about 11 times the 121 million, it has to get billions more medals to break even).\nSo the more small countries there are, the less fair the 'per capita' \u00a0ranking is to larger countries. \u00a0That is why Grenada comes top. \u00a0It is nothing to do with Grenada per se. \u00a0It could have been Tuvalu, Nauru, Vanuatu, Bahrain, Belize, Lesotho, St.Kitts, Bahamas, Solomon islands, Comoros, Lichtenstein, or any other small country.
    \nadd up all the people living in these countries and it becomes much more likely that at least ONE of those people will get a gold medal (and therefore send their country to the top of the rankings). (from Aaron, Aug 2012)
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  • The more athletes a nation sends to the games, the more medals can potentially be garnered. Since participation limits are not proportional to a nation's population, what is the point of counting medals per million population?\nHas anyone found a "medals per number of contestants" ranking table? This would be the ideal benchmark, but I haven't found the data analyzed in that way yet. (from Fred, 14 Aug 2012)
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  • New Zealand have won 6 golds for these games after the Eastern European drug cheat was disqualified. Where are the Scandinavian countries at these games? Must be something in the "water" (from Jonah Lomu, 14 Aug 2012)
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  • How about an analysis based on the countries in which each athlete raised. I'm not sure how you could gather the data to do this, but literally thousands of athletes are only able to compete due to the (often free) training they get in receive at American (for example) universities. I think of this particularly in track and field and basketball (conversely) Americans who travel to Europe to play soccer. (from ghoti, 13 Aug 2012)
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  • If you add up all the medals for Auszealand than they beat the rest of the world hands down and where is Finlands Rugby team? Just wait till sevens are in the Olympics. Gooooooo ANZAC!!!!! (from James Dure, Aug 2012)
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  • The results seem to show older established European countries rank higher than more recently developed countries like New Zealand and Australia, it would be interesting to see the results from say the last 50 years.\nAnother point is that some of the smaller countries would have been heavily impacted around the two world wars, particularly New Zealand, whereas neutral countries were impacted less. (from Aaron, Aug 2012)
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  • NZ is consistently ahead of Australia. Does anything else matter? (from Raynz, Aug 2012)
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  • This is not accurate. Jamaica has a population of 2.7 million and has won 55 medals. Why is she not ranked in the top 10. (from Sonia, 11 Aug 2012)\n
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    • Reply: Jamaica is not far off the top 10. They have 55 medals in total, 15 gold. (ed.)
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  • Hungary is doing well in the capita table as on the normal ranking. 8 gold medals. Congratulation!!! (from Zsolt, Aug 2012)
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  • It would be interesting to split out the results between Summer and Winter. Typically the Scandinavians do very well in Winter while the Americans and Australians to better in Summer. Also, the rules of the games tend to benefit smaller countries -- US might well have gotten another overall medal in woman's gymnastics this year if their arguably strongest competitor who would have qualified easily in any other country hadn't been left out of the finals because 2 other Americans beat her in the prelims. \u00a0While that is an extreme example, each country is limited in how many contestants they can send to each event and mishaps taking out top competitors are not that uncommon. (from Tom, 11 Aug 2012)
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  • U did great job bt i tink its not adviceable to determine the best Olympic team by population cos we can see small or larger country whom could win many medals of made them the best country per that year. So i suggest they should pick the best team from gold medals per that year of any country that perform excellent. Thanks. U re great wt ur analysis (from Awojobi kehinde, Aug 2012)
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  • I teach 8th grade math, and LOVE number crunching! Great stuff you've got here! I do similar things sometimes myself to prove points in sports debates, but have never actually created a page for any of it. Speaking as someone born in Germany, but now holding US citizenship and teaching in Texas, I must say I find it interesting that European countries absolutely dominate that list. What's even more interesting though is which European countries.\nThe countries normally associated as being powerhouses in football (soccer as it's called here in the USA) are noticeably absent from the top ranks. The likes of Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands etc didn't make the list which leads me to believe that there's likely a higher proportion of young athletes in those nations pursuing football than other sports. Meanwhile, the European nations making the top flight of Olympic competition, as illustrated above, are punching bags on the European football (soccer) scene. Hence, youngsters in those countries are probably more likely to pursue other sports than they would in the strong footballing nations. Just conjecturing. (from Volkmar, 10 Aug 2012)\n
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    • In reply to Volkmar's conjecture, to be successful on the medals per capita table it helps to have a small population (a Communist Government probably also helped, especially in the case of the 3 most populous countries on the above list, East Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria). Being European helped because it tended to mean you had been taking part for longer and with more support money from a wealthier economy. This will probably change as small independent Caribbean islands start to build up more sprint medals - the Bahamas are already there, and Grenada will top the table once you include 2012 medals (and provided you still leave out Liechtenstein's Winter medals). In contrast powerhouses in soccer, (arguably) the world's most popular team sport, unsurprisingly tend to have much larger populations, with the arguable exception of Portugal, and the difficult to explain exception of Uruguay. Another interesting exception is New Zealand, which is not European, has a small population, and makes it onto this table, yet also manages to be the world's Number 1 powerhouse in the team sport of Rugby Union, a position it has maintained for about a century (an incomplete explanation is that Rugby is not nearly as widely played as soccer). Tragi-comically this 'low population helps on this table' observation does nothing to explain why Finland does about 10 times better on this table than my own country (Ireland) despite Finland having the apparent disadvantage of a slightly larger population :( :( :( \u00a0:) :) :) (from Theloh Slobus, 11 Aug 2012)
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  • Grenada now look set for the top end of the "average gold medals per million population" table based on this year's single gold medal alone (after competing at 8 Olympics, and, crucially, having a population of just 100,000 people, their score comes to about 1.25 gold medals per million people per Olympics). (from Paddy, 10 Aug 2012)
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  • Australia this year have 384 participants, and China only 384, Italy 288! I'm \u00a0Australian, I am tired of the glory and money that this nation give away, (and I'm not the only one) free to children who never even appear in the vicinity of the Olympic Games. Money that can be use for the family, (usually single mother) \u00a0that live literally in the \u00a0street, and missing bed in the hospital, and lack of doctor. I'm tired of children become bully because schools give them away everything and do not even have any culture at all, a mass of ignorant bully children feed with the "hope" that one day they will win a gold medal and never happen. \u00a0Many Australians should start to state fact and truth if we want a grown up nation, sport is fine if is in balance with the needed of the rest of the population. (from Tina, 10 Aug 2012)
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  • If you include Winter medals, then Liechtenstein (population 33,000 in the 2000 census, estimated at 36,000 by 2011) with 2 Gold, 2 Silver, and 5 Bronze, all in Alpine skiing, is by far the most successful Olympic nation with about 60 golds and about 270 medals per million people, making it about 50 times more successful than East Germany and about 100 times more successful than Finland, though almost nobody seems to know this. The BBC 2012 Commentary as they marched by in the opening ceremony was basically 'Liechtenstein have never won any medals in the Summer Olympics', which is arguably farcical ignorance from the official Olympic broadcaster (and seemingly almost everybody else) about what is in one sense the most successful Olympic country of all (even if nobody knows this, possibly because the self-declared Land Of The Free would perhaps prefer if nobody was too free to challenge its own claim to being the most successful Olympic country of all). Wikipedia's rules against 'original research' probably prevent me from publishing any of this on Wikipedia, though they perhaps don't prevent any other readers of this website from publishing it on Wikipedia, and quoting this website as their source. My own source is in theory Wikipedia's all-time Olympic Medals table, plus Wikipedia's articles on the population of various countries - though my real source is mostly my memory of watching on TV as a young woman representing Liechtenstein won those two golds in under a week back in the 1970s. (from Theloh Slobus, 10 Aug 2012)
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  • It would be more interesting to see the statistics only from 1992 onward, too many countries appeared and disappeared before that. Not to mention the drastically different amount of medals available. The average number of gold medals per summer Olympics is about 173 and we have 300+ this year. (from Harri, Aug 2012)
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  • In order to match East Germany in average medals per capita, China would have had to win over 20000 gold medals and over 54000 total medals in just 8 summer Olympics. I'm fairly certain there weren't even that many medals to win. This analysis assumes that the ability to win medals increases linearly with population, which is impossible. (from Pete, Aug 2012)
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  • Did you include the GB countries separately also? Or England, , , Wales? Pretty sure Scotland would be high up your table. (from robbie hendry, 8 Aug 2012)
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  • Another comparison could be made, if one deletes with each country the most successful sport. For example, at this moment (6th aug) London-Olympics 2012, USA has 60 medals, however 30 medals are won in 1 sport (swimming), which indicates, that in the wide variety of sports, the overall performance of USA is very average/mediocre(310 million people!!! & 1 of the richest countries in the world) (from J. Meekma, 6 Aug 2012)
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  • Interesting. But things are really more complicated than just a simple ranking by number of medals. If nobody has mentioned, the analysis should be corrected by the number of athletes participating PER COUNTRY in each sport. For example (simplified): there could be 5 chinese, 3 germans, 1 japanese, and the gold, silver and bronze go to the japanese, german and chinese in this order. Clearly, the japanese win counts more than all the 5 chinese, and the 3 germans. This is indeed the kind of analysis that must be done: To correct for the number of athletes participating PER COUNTRY, and PER SPORT. China is huge, they can send hordes of athletes to the Olympics, but Cuba, Finland, or even Brasil send less. Conclusions could then be startling. (from Maxei, 6 Aug 2012)
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  • What most just will not acknowledge is the regularity of the type of countries that rank highest (not considering the Bahamas). They are essentially countries that have been marked by high levels of social equality and public sponsorship of sport. Makes you think, doesn't it? (from John of God, Aug 2012)
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  • NZ and Australia are special cases as their populations have changed significantly and disproportionately and are therefore disadvantaged by using current population statistics. Also as shown on your 2008 statistics Australia is ranked 5th and is the only reasonably large population ranking well. (from Mike, Aug 2012)
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  • Yes, ignore all results of East Germany. That would make your silly statistics more true! We in the West have not doped at all. We are good - they are evil. OM (from P. Foster, 6 Aug 2012)
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  • Look at recent medal tables though in recent years Scandinavia sucks. So whatever they had they lost. (from Graham Higgins, Aug 2012)\n
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    • I'd disagree with your evaluation of Scandinavia's Olympic performance, at least based on this year. \u00a0Finland may not have won any medals this year yet, but Denmark is one of the top four performers per capita (alongside Jamaica, New Zealand, and Slovenia), while Sweden and Norway are doing OK as well. (from Paddy, 6 Aug 2012)
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  • Interesting analysis. \u00a0Based on results at the halfway mark of the 2012 Olympics, however, the table leaders should watch their backs ... no medals yet for Finland, Estonia or the Bahamas, but Sweden has three silvers while Hungary has two golds, a silver, and two bronzes. (from Paddy, Aug 2012)
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  • The larger the country the less decentralized it is. The United States and China could never have a higher ratio than the smaller number of countries on this list, especially when you consider how many niche sports here are in the Olympics? How many of the best American athletes, for example, play football and baseball. Two sports that are not in the Olympics but are multi-mega billion dollar a year leagues (NFL, MLB).\nThe US can dominate in a sport like basketball that has massive popularity around the world but that meddle still only counts as much as a victory in synchronized swimming.\nLarger countries usually means more individuals with less access to the coaching and training necessary to become great in a particular event. This is particularly true with highly diversified economies like the US. An example I'll give is when looking at television rating for sporting events. New York City is by almost any measurement a terrific, top-tier sports team. But it will never pull in as high a ratings share for, say, an NFL game as a Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City, New Orleans, etc, mostly because of its size and diversified economy. You'll get the big "whole" numbers but not the percentages and per-capita numbers that we fixate on. (from Erik W., 6 Aug 2012)
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  • A per capita evens the playing field a bit, but not entirely. The large countries still have advantages that the smaller countries don't. The bigger countries get a huge number of relay medals every Olympics. If for example the Scandinavian countries were one country together with Australia and NZ then just based on the swimmers they already have they would be extremely strong in all swimming relays for example. So a better measure would probably be to also take away all those relay events which are mostly a function of country size to. (from Alexander, 3 Aug 2012)
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  • Another important factor that is not taken into consideration is the number of Olympic Games attended. this could have a huge impact on your calculations. (from Neil, 3 Aug 2012)\n
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    • Reply: Yes, I agree, and I have updated this article to include analysis based on average medals per the number of appearances at the Olympics.
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  • I think you should compare static between medals / all time number of athletes. because i don't think U.S.A. example can have 1:1 ratio of athletes in Olympic Games as we little countries. Please correct me if I'm wrong. (from Markus Makkonen, Aug 2012)\n
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    • Ignorant form lol. Just admit it, the USA rules. (from Machine, Aug 2012)
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    • I think that this raises a really good question. How many medals would China or even the US or Russia have to win to have the same level of medals per capita? Let us say that the US has 300 million people, in order to achieve the same total medals per million it would have had to won over 16,000 medals. I don't know if there are that many total medals that could have possibly been won. I do know that the big countries had the per capita medal counts that smaller countries have or even came close they would be really boring to watch because China, India and the US would win them all. (from Eric, Aug 2012)
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  • In relation to New Zealand's medal count, in both 1908 & 1912 New Zealand & Australia sent combined teams to the Olympics. New Zealand athletes won 1 bronze in both 1908 & 1912 and 0.25 of a gold in 1912 (1 Kiwi & 3 Aussies in the 4x200 freestyle relay). You have not added these in to your count. (from Gordon Fidler, Aug 2012)
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  • Just as a note New Zealand only started to compete in 1920. (from Casey, Aug 2012)
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  • It's also worth noting that Hungary, for example, was not allowed to compete in the 1920 Olympics. The irony is that Budapest won the right to host the Olympics that year, but WW1 and the Versailles Treaty changed things. The country also lost out on the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1980, due to the Soviet-imposed blockade. (from Andras, July 2012)
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  • NOTE: the top countries Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway borders to each other ... would that point to that the area has the best sportsmen in the world? gotta be something in the water =P (from hexy, July 2012)
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  • I like your tables with per capita and per GDP.\nI would like to know if it is normalized by current Population and Current GDP\nIf you compute an ranking for All time. It needs to be\ncomputed using the GDP and Population at that Olympic year and integrated over the years that country Participated.\nChina has participated for only 8 Olympics, while USA for 25. \u00a0So for an all-time listing you need some average.\nThen Soviet Union and East Germany will not come as N/A\nsince they had a population at that time.\nAlso a country with a currently depressed GDP like Zimbabwe will not come high since they had a higher GDP in past.\nI know it is a lot of work, but once the database is setup\nwith past GDP and Population estimates, computing the correct index is not difficult to program. (from Dr Kavan \u00a0Ratnatunga, July 2012) -\n
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    • Reply: I agree, the data analysis need more work, which won't be happening just now. (Rob, Topend Sports)
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  • What about a weather correction? Surely Ireland would then have to figure?! (from Jim, July 2012)
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  • This isn't quite accurate as it hasn't taken into account changes in population over the years. New Zealand population is based on today's figures. For most of Olympic history it has been under 3 million. Finland's probably has been constantly about 5 million. (from Dan, July 2012)\n
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    • Reply: yes, you are right, only the most recent figures for population were used in the above calculations, even though population levels have changed over time. The assumption is that the proportion is similar for each country, but this is probably not always the case as you point out. (Rob, topendsports)
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  • Being an Estonian I cannot help but have to point out that if Estonian athletes' medals from the Soviet period were included, the total tally would be 27-22-27. A few of these medals came in team sports with the USSR team, not in individual events but nevertheless the official data misses about half of the medals. (from Lynx, July 2012)
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  • USA not in the Top-10? That won't do. Must fudge the numbers some more. (from Rick, July 2012)
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  • The most golds per capita is down as Finland - not New Zealand as said during the 2012 Opening Ceremony (from Jerry Lewis, July 27, 2012)\n
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    • Pretty sure that this is including the Winter Olympics, and the statistic about New Zealand referred to in the opening ceremony is in fact only the summer games. (from John Jameson, Aug 2012)
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    • Reply: this list IS for the summer Olympics. Finland have won many of their 101 Summer Olympics gold medals in track and field (48) and also wrestling (26). (from Rob, Topend Sports, Aug 3 2012)
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    • The comment during the BBC opening ceremony coverage re. NZ being top of the per capita table was only a guess by one of the commentators, it wasn't confirmed. (from C Hughes, 5 Aug 2012)
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    • Reply: NZ and Australia are often quoted as being the best performers per capita, though the analysis above does not confirm this :( (from Rob, Topend Sports, Aug 5 2012)
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    • I think again you have to look to a previous comments NZs population didn't reach 3 million until 1976 as opposed to Finland who exceeded this in 1913. I believe if other factors like this were measured there may be some truth in Jerry's quick slip of tongue. (from Hales, 10 Aug 2012)
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    • Yes NZ and Australia have both had relatively high population growth over the last 30 years so population at each Olympics needs to be factored ... (from Big Bad Bill, 11 Aug 2012)
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