Although the United States lead the all-time Summer Olympics medal table, and the Soviet Union have the highest average medal tally per event, it is the Bahamas who has the highest medal count per capita. With 8 golds and 16 total Olympic medals, and a population of fewer than 290,000 people in 2020, The Bahamas have won roughly 56 medals per million people. Until the 2020 Games, Finland consistently had the highest number of medals per capita, due to its legacy in athletic and wrestling events in the mid-twentieth century, although smaller (particularly Caribbean) nations have climbed the table in recent years. Olympic tradition and lower populations in the top ten With 511 total medals, Hungary is the most successful nation to have never hosted the Summer Olympics. Unlike the Bahamas or Finland, Hungary's medal haul has been consistently high throughout Olympic history, and they are currently eighth in the overall medal table. Hungary has won a large proportion of its medals in fencing, swimming and canoeing events, and is top of the overall table in pentathlon and water polo events. When it comes to gold medals per capita, Hungary is in second place with just under 19 medals per one million inhabitants. In addition to Finland, other Nordic countries have performed well at the Olympics on a per capita basis, as their high rate of participation over time and relatively low populations means that four of the top ten spots on this list are taken by Scandinavian countries. U.S., Soviet Union and China fall behind As mentioned previously, countries who have won the most medals overall do not have always the highest per-capita totals. For example, China has the fourth-most gold medals of all time, but, as China has the highest population in the world, this translates to just 0.18 golds per million people. The U.S. has won a total of 3 golds and 8 total medals per million people, while the Soviet Union had won fewer than four medals per million people, based on its population in 1990.

This statistic shows the number of medals won per million population at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, broken down by nation. Norway won 7.33 medals per million population in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In the history of the Summer Olympics, the United States has been the most successful nation ever, with a combined total of 2,761 medals in 29 Olympic Games. More than one thousand of these were gold, with almost 900 silver medals, and nearly 800 bronze medals. The second most successful team in Summer Olympic history was the Soviet Union**, who took home 440 golds and more than 1,100 total medals in ten Olympic Games between 1952 and 1992. When the total medal hauls of the Soviet Union, Russia and the Russian Empire are combined, they still fall short of the U.S. tally by over one thousand medals. Meanwhile, Great Britain sat in fifth place, with 299 golds and 980 medals in total. Emerging nations While European and Anglophone nations have traditionally dominated the medals tables, recent decades have seen the emergence and increased participation from athletes representing developing nations, such as Kenya, Jamaica, and particularly China. Although China has competed in just 12 Summer Olympics, they have the fifth most gold medals across a variety of events, despite only developing a significant Olympic presence in the 1980s. Athletes from African and Caribbean nations have also developed a more formidable presence since this time, by focusing their resources on specific sports; for example, Kenyan athletes have established a lasting legacy in distance running events, while Jamaicans have dominated sprinting events in recent years. Despite this increased investment, the past three Olympic Games have seen a record number of African-born athletes representing high-income countries in the Arabian Gulf; most notably, athletes born in Kenya and Ethiopia competing for Bahrain. The influence of money, politics and drugs As mentioned above, European and Anglophone countries have dominated the medals tables in the past; this is because they had the financial resources to send athletes around the world to compete, and, until 1964, the host cities were always in these countries, which caused financial and logistical difficulties for African, Asian and Latin American countries. Financial difficulties have caused some countries to refuse invitations to the Olympics as recently as the 1980s, for example, many African and Latin American countries joined in the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games (due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), saving face by citing the boycott and not financial problems as the reason. This boycott also contributed to the Soviet Union and East Germany's high medal tally, as both nations took over sixty percent of all available gold medals. In retaliation, the Soviet Union led a boycott of the following Games in Los Angeles, opening the way for the United States to win almost half of all available golds in 1984. Recent years have seen doping scandals replace financial and political factors as the main external-influence on the medals table. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, to combat the increasing use of performance-enhancing substances in sports. Since then, it has had a major impact on the Olympic medal table, and has helped rescind and redistribute more than one hundred Olympic medals. Athletes from Russia and former-Soviet countries have been particularly affected by these measures, which follows a legacy of state-sponsored doping programs dating back to the 1980s. In 2019, WADA banned all Russian athletes from the 2020 Games in Tokyo due to yet another state-sponsored doping scandal; athletes from Russia could only compete if they have been cleared by WADA prior to the games, while representing the Russian Olympic Committee, rather than the country itself. Paris 2024 was also shadowed by the issue of doping, with some delegations criticizing WADA for clearing 11 Chinese swimmers to participate in the Games, despite testing for a banned substance in 2021.

The United States is the most successful nation of all time at the Summer Olympic Games, having amassed a total of 2,520 medals since the first Olympics in 1896.

Team USA gets the gold medal Of the 2,520 medals won by Team USA over the years, over one thousand have been gold. The dominance of the United States can be shown in the fact that only two other nations, Russia and Germany, have reached a combined medal tally of 1,000. The United States team has been present at every edition of the Olympics except for the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, which they boycotted in protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan during the height of the Cold War. In the most recent Summer Olympics, held in Rio de Janiero in 2016, Team USA emerged with 121 medals, making it their third most successful Olympics in history. The team were able to claim 46 gold medals across a record 35 sports, including men’s basketball, women’s water polo, and tennis mixed doubles. 

Team USA only second best in the Winter Olympics The United States’ unrivalled success in the Summer Olympics is not quite matched in the Winter Olympics. Whilst Team USA claims second spot in the all-time medal tally with an impressive 305 medals, they are just beaten by Norway, who have claimed 368 medals since 1924. This tally is very impressive considering Norway’s population stands at just over five million inhabitants, a fraction of the size of the United States. Indeed, the most successful Winter Olympian of all time, Marit Bjørgen, hails from the Scandinavian country. The cross-country skiier collected eight gold medals, four silver, and three bronze in a dazzling career that spanned five Winter Olympics between 2002 and 2018.

Ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, Norway had won the most gold medals, with a total of 148. The country has also won the most Winter Olympic medals overall. Meanwhile, the United States has won a total of 113 gold medals at the Winter Olympics.

Over the course of the history of the Summer Olympic Games, the number of medals awarded has been going up steadily. At the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, a total of 340 gold medals were awarded.

The dataset contains year- and sports-wise historical data on gold, silver and bronze medals won by India in Asian Games, along with details of name of the winning person, hosting country and city, and the overall rank of India

Context

Speed skating has been featured as a sport in the Winter Olympics since the first winter games in 1924. Women's events were added to the Olympic program for the first time in 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics. Though some variation between men and women, races typically of the following events:

• 500m
• 1000m
• 1500m
• 5000m
• 10000m
• mass start
• team pursuit

Content

This dataset contains the top 3 athletes of each game on each event of every Winter Olympics to date.

Inspiration

Ger Inberg - Speedskating visualization

As of 2024, the athlete with the most gold medals won at the Summer Olympic Games was swimming sensation Michael Phelps, with a staggering 23 golds to his name. Meanwhile, there were six Olympians with six gold medals, two of whom reached the milestone during the Paris 2024 Olympics - swimmers Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel. Which country has won the most Olympic medals as of 2024? As of 2024, the United States held the record for the most Olympic medals won by country, with a total of 2,761 medals earned across 29 Olympic Games. The U.S. also led in gold medals, having won over 1,100. Russia and Germany followed in the medal count. Regarding athlete participation in the Summer Olympics from 1896 to 2024, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics saw the highest number of competitors, with over 11,300 athletes. In comparison, an estimated 10,500 athletes competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics. How many people in the U.S. watch the Olympics? The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were especially popular in the United States, where viewership for the opening ceremony surpassed 28 million U.S. TV viewers. This made it the most-watched Summer Olympics opening ceremony since 2012, when a record 40.7 million viewers tuned in. This interest was sustained throughout the 2024 Paris Games, with the average TV audience in the U.S. reaching 31.3 million. One of the standout moments was the men's basketball final between Team USA and France, which drew an average of 19.5 million viewers as the U.S. clinched the gold medal.

Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the United States Olympics team was the favorite to top the medal table of that year's edition of the Games. In total, the U.S. team was projected to win 123 medals, which was 34 more than second-placed China. Team USA went on to top the actual Paris 2024 medal table, with a total of 126 medals, which included 40 gold medals.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were scheduled to be the first time a modern Summer Olympics will have an equal share of male and female athletes competing. The first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 were exclusively for male competitors, and although some female events were introduced in Paris in 1900, the share of events was just 2.2 percent. Over the next century, the ratio of female to male events has gradually narrowed, and at a faster rate in recent decades, reaching almost 49 percent in Tokyo 2020. Not only has the overall volume of female athletes increased, the last decade has seen the introduction of several mixed events; these included mixed shooting events and both sprinting and swimming mixed relays.

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris drew 28.6 million U.S. TV viewers, making this broadcast the most watched opening ceremony for a Summer Olympics since 2012. That year, the opening ceremony had the highest U.S. viewership in the period from 1988 to 2024, with a total of about 40.7 million people. Decline in Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony viewership The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro drew an average audience of 25.6 million viewers in the United States, a decrease of over 14 million viewers from the previous Games held in London in 2012. This meant that the U.S. TV ratings for the opening ceremony in Rio stood at 16.5, 4.5 lower than for the opening ceremony at London 2012. The highest opening ceremony ratings were seen during the two Olympic Games held in the United States, as the opening ceremony at the 1984 games in Los Angeles had a rating of 23.9 and the 1996 games in Atlanta earned a rating of 23.6. The Rio Games also saw a decrease in the average number of primetime TV viewers in the United States, with an average of 27.5 million viewers tuning into the action in 2016, in comparison to 30.3 million during London 2012.Despite the reduced viewing figures for the opening ceremony in Rio, the daily viewership numbers did increase throughout the Games, with a peak audience of over 33 million turning on NBC on August 9 to see the U.S. team win two gold medals in the pool and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team take gold in the Women’s Team Final. In contrast, only 16.85 million watched the Rio closing ceremony on NBC on August 21.

Between November 2022 and November 2023, around 7.4 million people in England regularly participated in cycling, representing a slight decrease on the previous survey period. Participation levels noticeably increased during the 2019-20 period, with nearly 8.3 million people cycling during this time. How much money do people in the UK spend on bicycles? In 2023, household spending on bicycles in the UK neared 1.6 billion British pounds, reflecting a decrease of nearly two percent compared to the previous year. The sales volume of new bicycles in the UK has been on a downward trend since 2020, dropping to just over 1.7 million in 2024. However, while fewer bicycles are being purchased, their prices have been steadily increasing. In 2024, the average price of a new bicycle in the UK was around 600 British pounds. How popular is Olympic cycling in the UK? In 2024, nearly 20 percent of the UK population reported following track cycling as part of the Summer Olympics. Around that same year, public funding for Olympic cycling in the UK reached its highest-ever level, with investment for the Paris 2024 cycle approaching 30 million British pounds. Additionally, Great Britain ranks among the countries with the most Olympic medals in track cycling, along with France and Italy.