The Olympics is the pinnacle of elite sport for all those taking part. Every four years, the best athletes in each discipline assemble to battle for medals against their toughest opponents.
It’s a great spectacle for viewers at home, and for those lucky enough to be in the stadium, but which are the best performing countries in the history of the Games?
United States of America
The Paris Olympics will adjust the numbers of medals, but it will be some time before the United States are overtaken at the top of the table. It should be no surprise to see them there, as the USA’s citizens are competitive people and serious about elite competition. Whether it’s an Olympic sprint, an NFL game or a game of blackjack at one of the many online casinos in the USA, the action is always tense and highly charged. That approach to sport and games in general had made the USA the best performing team in the history of the Olympics.
As they headed to the 2024 tournament in Paris, athletes from the United States had claimed no fewer than 2,629 medals, 1,109 of which were golds.
The Soviet Union
It’s incredible to think that the Soviet Union hasn’t existed for over thirty years, yet it still features in second place in the overall Olympics medal table. The country last appeared at the Seoul Games in 1988, where they dominated proceedings.
The Soviets won 132 medals in Seoul including 55 golds. It was an exceptional haul that contributed to their final tally of 1010 medals, 395 of which were gold.
United Kingdom
The country most likely to overtake the Soviet Union is the United Kingdom. British athletes responded to a disappointing games in 1996 where they won just one gold, and have since dominated the cycling events.
The UK is strong elsewhere too, and as the team prepared for Paris 2024, they could look back on 916 medals and 284 golds.
France
The French are the inventors of modern-day Olympic games, and their long history in the tournament puts them in fourth place in the overall medal table. As they prepared to host the games in 2024, France boasted no fewer than 751 medals, including 223 golds.
They were the home nation in 2024, and as such the French team were expecting another big haul of medals at the Summer Olympics.
China
Chinese athletes rank highly in recent Olympic medal tables, and the country may just overtake the UK in the race for second place. Following the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, China had claimed 636 medals including 263 golds.
While there is a way to go before China can overtake the UK, the country is dominant in certain events such as diving, and early wins helped the country to climb the medal table at Paris 2024.
Behind the first five, the remaining countries making up the top ten Olympic medal winners are Italy, Germany, Hungary, Australia and Sweden. Each will be hoping for more glory in Paris in 2024.
The challenge is down for these countries, and others, to climb the Olympic medal table at Paris and beyond. It’s possible that no-one will ever catch the United States, but it’s a competitive current landscape with room for movement from second place onwards.
