Mental Floss

The 20 Countries With the Most Olympic Gold Medals

Everyone goes for the gold at the Olympic Games, but not everyone gets it.

Olympic gold medals are the zenith of athletic achievement.
Olympic gold medals are the zenith of athletic achievement. | ODD ANDERSEN/GettyImages

Super Bowl rings and Stanley Cups are prized rewards for sporting excellence, but there’s something extra special about earning a gold medal at the Olympics. It demonstrates the pinnacle of athletic achievement on the world stage and an opportunity that can only be seized once every four years.

With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics set to begin on July 26, data hub Visual Capitalist recently compiled a list of the 20 countries that have earned the most gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Games from 1896 to 2022. Here’s what they found, though bear in mind medal counts can vary slightly depending on the source. (Visual Capitalist cites data from the International Olympic Committee.)

The Olympics' Top 20 Countries by Gold Medal Count

  1. United States // 1175
  2. USSR // 473
  3. Germany // 305
  4. Great Britain // 296
  5. China // 285
  6. France // 264
  7. Italy // 259
  8. Sweden // 212
  9. Norway // 209
  10. Russia // 194
  11. East Germany // 192
  12. Japan // 186
  13. Hungary // 183
  14. Australia // 170
  15. Canada // 148 (tie)
  16. Netherlands // 148 (tie)
  17. Finland // 146
  18. South Korea // 129
  19. Switzerland // 116
  20. Austria // 91

The United States is far and away on top of the leaderboard, with more than double the number of gold medals than the now-defunct Soviet Union. But the USSR’s ranking is impressive given that their medal count comes from just 18 Olympic Games held between the 1950s and 1990s. Iron sharpens iron, or so the saying goes, and the fierce rivalry between Russia and the U.S. during these decades led to political and socioeconomic posturing in athletics.

There’s also a close correlation between funding for sports and medals earned. Track and field receives considerable financial support from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee; the U.S., in turn, has won 827 medals (gold, silver, and bronze) in that category alone. Swimming, another well-funded endeavor, has netted the U.S. 578 medals total.

That doesn’t mean countries can’t make do without checks being written. In 2022, Norway netted 37 medals despite not offering any financial bonus for winning athletes the way other countries do. (Italy, for example, gave $201,000 to gold medalists that year.)

But even winning nations can struggle. Despite America’s success on the podium, the country has never medaled in badminton, trampoline, handball, rhythmic gymnastics, or table tennis. Maybe 2024 will be the year.

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