Olympic medals are awarded to athletes who achieve excellence in their respective sports at the Olympic Games, which are held every four years. The three types of Olympic medals are gold, silver, and bronze.
Gold medals are awarded to the first-place finisher in an Olympic event, silver medals are awarded to the second-place finisher, and bronze medals are awarded to the third-place finisher.
The medals are usually made of metal, with the gold medals being made mostly of silver with a gold plating. The medals also have inscriptions, including the name of the event, the year of the Olympics, and the emblem of the Olympic Games.
Winning an Olympic medal is considered one of the highest achievements for an athlete, and athletes who have won multiple medals, especially gold medals, are often regarded as legends in their respective sports.
The first modern Olympic medals were awarded in the 1896 Athens Olympics, where the winners received silver medals and olive branches, while the runners-up received bronze medals and laurel branches.
It wasn’t until the 1904 St. Louis Olympics that gold, silver, and bronze medals were introduced.
Since then, the design of the medals has evolved, with each host country usually having its own unique design. For example, the medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics featured a circular design with the Olympic emblem on one side and an image of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, on the other side.
In addition to their intrinsic value, Olympic medals also have monetary value, with gold medals often being worth the most due to their gold content.
Some countries also offer financial incentives to their athletes for winning Olympic medals, with the amount varying depending on the country and the type of medal.
Overall, Olympic medals serve as symbols of athletic excellence and national pride, and they continue to inspire and motivate athletes around the world to strive for greatness.
There is a global competition known as the Olympic Games, which brings together competitors from all over the globe to compete for their nations’ prestige. The Olympics are the premier international sporting event, with a new host city hosting the games each time they are held.
Even if a city can host numerous Olympic events, it may not be able to host all of them, as is the case with Los Angeles (California, United States).
The two sections of the Olympics are split according to the seasons. Track and field, swimming, gymnastics, & basketball are just a few of the many outdoor sports included in the Summer Olympics.
In contrast, cold-weather sports like bobsledding, ice skating, and skiing emphasize the Winter Olympics. Because both events take place every four years, their calendars are now two years apart.
This means that the next three years of the Olympic calendar will be devoted to the Summer Games, with the Winter Games following three years later, from the years 2020 to 2032.
The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has been postponed until July/August of 2021 because of the worldwide epidemic of COVID-19.
For athletes with disabilities, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is a partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which hosts the Paralympic Games.
The cooperation allows the Paralympics to be held in the same host city as the Olympics, even though they are nominally independent organizations.
Athletes ages 15 to 18 compete in the IOC’s Summer and Winter Youth Olympics. It follows a two-lane/four-year calendar identical to the main games, but with various host cities and venues, like the Youth Olympic Games.
In addition, numerous regional competitions, such as the Pan American Games and the Asian Games, are linked with the Olympics.
Since the modern Olympics started in 1896, overall medal numbers may be a bit of a stumbling block. As a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia was established as an independent state.
If any of the younger nations were given credit for the Soviet Union’s medals, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had to make that decision.
Several athletes have participated in the Olympic Games as individuals because of their political views or sanctions against the country hosting the games.
For the record, the IOC has withdrawn an athlete’s medal and given it to someone else on a few occasions. Here are the top 10 Summer & Winter Olympic medal winners in 2021, in order.
List of Olympic Medal Winners:
Most summer Olympic medals have been won by the United States (2656), the Soviet Union (1010), the United Kingdom (916), France (750), Germany (652), China (634), Italy (618), and the nations of Australia (547) and Hungary (511) (503).
Also See: Obscure Countries 2022
Winter Olympic medals are awarded to Norway (368), the United States (307), Germany 240 (Austria 232), Canada (199), the Soviet Union (194), Finland (167), Sweden (158), Switzerland (153), and the Netherlands (153), respectively (130).
A complete list of all the Olympic Games to date may be seen by scrolling down the page.
According to the International Olympic Committee, 10 countries have won the most Olympic medals.
- United States – 2,920 total medals (1,127 gold, 907 silver, 886 bronze)
- Soviet Union – 1,204 total medals (473 gold, 376 silver, 355 bronze)
- Germany – 1,114 total medals (375 gold, 361 silver, 378 bronze)
- Great Britain – 883 total medals (263 gold, 295 silver, 325 bronze)
- France – 840 total medals (246 gold, 274 silver, 320 bronze)
- Italy – 827 total medals (246 gold, 214 silver, 367 bronze)
- China – 789 total medals (224 gold, 167 silver, 398 bronze)
- Sweden – 652 total medals (202 gold, 217 silver, 233 bronze)
- Russia – 635 total medals (198 gold, 167 silver, 270 bronze)
- Hungary – 498 total medals (175 gold, 147 silver, 176 bronze)
Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total Medals | 2022 Population |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | 1180 | 959 | 841 | 2980 | 334805.2690 |
United Kingdom | 296 | 320 | 332 | 948 | 68497.9070 |
Germany | 293 | 293 | 306 | 892 | 83883.5960 |
France | 258 | 289 | 327 | 874 | 65584.5180 |
Italy | 257 | 224 | 261 | 742 | 60262.7700 |
China | 275 | 227 | 194 | 696 | 1448471.4000 |
Sweden | 205 | 222 | 234 | 661 | 10218.9710 |
Australia | 169 | 178 | 215 | 562 | 26068.7920 |
Japan | 183 | 172 | 200 | 555 | 125584.8380 |
Russia | 196 | 164 | 187 | 547 | 145805.9470 |
Norway | 192 | 176 | 160 | 528 | 5511.3700 |
Canada | 144 | 172 | 209 | 525 | 38388.4190 |
Hungary | 182 | 156 | 180 | 518 | 9606.2590 |
Finland | 144 | 148 | 180 | 472 | 5554.9600 |
Netherlands | 140 | 148 | 163 | 451 | 17211.4470 |
Switzerland | 109 | 124 | 125 | 358 | 8773.6370 |
South Korea | 127 | 116 | 114 | 357 | 51329.8990 |
Austria | 83 | 115 | 128 | 326 | 9066.7100 |
Poland | 79 | 96 | 145 | 320 | 37739.7850 |
Romania | 90 | 97 | 122 | 309 | 19031.3350 |
Cuba | 85 | 71 | 85 | 241 | 11305.6520 |
Bulgaria | 55 | 90 | 85 | 230 | 6844.5970 |
Denmark | 48 | 79 | 79 | 206 | 5834.9500 |
Spain | 49 | 72 | 50 | 171 | 46719.1420 |
Belgium | 44 | 56 | 61 | 161 | 11668.2780 |
Brazil | 37 | 42 | 71 | 150 | 215353.5930 |
Ukraine | 38 | 37 | 72 | 147 | 43192.1220 |
New Zealand | 53 | 34 | 53 | 140 | 4898.2030 |
Greece | 35 | 45 | 41 | 121 | 10316.6370 |
Kenya | 35 | 42 | 36 | 113 | 56215.2210 |
Turkey | 41 | 26 | 37 | 104 | 85561.9760 |
Belarus | 21 | 35 | 47 | 103 | 9432.8000 |
Czech Republic | 28 | 32 | 38 | 98 | 10736.7840 |
South Africa | 27 | 33 | 29 | 89 | 60756.1350 |
Jamaica | 26 | 36 | 25 | 87 | 2985.0940 |
Kazakhstan | 16 | 24 | 40 | 80 | 19205.0430 |
Argentina | 21 | 26 | 30 | 77 | 46010.2340 |
Iran | 24 | 23 | 29 | 76 | 86022.8370 |
Mexico | 13 | 24 | 36 | 73 | 131562.7720 |
Ethiopia | 23 | 12 | 23 | 58 | 120812.6980 |
North Korea | 16 | 17 | 23 | 56 | 25990.6790 |
Croatia | 18 | 19 | 15 | 52 | 4059.2860 |
Azerbaijan | 7 | 14 | 28 | 49 | 10300.2050 |
Slovenia | 10 | 14 | 21 | 45 | 2078.0340 |
Estonia | 14 | 11 | 18 | 43 | 1321.9100 |
Georgia | 10 | 12 | 18 | 40 | 3968.7380 |
Slovakia | 13 | 18 | 9 | 40 | 5460.1930 |
Egypt | 8 | 11 | 19 | 38 | 106156.6920 |
Uzbekistan | 11 | 6 | 20 | 37 | 34382.0840 |
Indonesia | 8 | 14 | 15 | 37 | 279134.5050 |
Ireland | 11 | 10 | 14 | 35 | 5020.1990 |
Thailand | 10 | 8 | 17 | 35 | 70078.2030 |
India | 10 | 9 | 16 | 35 | 1406631.7760 |
Colombia | 5 | 13 | 16 | 34 | 51512.7620 |
Latvia | 5 | 14 | 11 | 30 | 1848.8370 |
Mongolia | 2 | 11 | 17 | 30 | 3378.0780 |
Portugal | 5 | 9 | 14 | 28 | 10140.5700 |
Nigeria | 3 | 11 | 13 | 27 | 216746.9340 |
Lithuania | 6 | 7 | 13 | 26 | 2661.7080 |
Serbia | 6 | 7 | 11 | 24 | 8653.0160 |
Morocco | 7 | 5 | 12 | 24 | 37772.7560 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 3 | 5 | 11 | 19 | 1406.5850 |
Venezuela | 3 | 7 | 9 | 19 | 29266.9910 |
Armenia | 2 | 8 | 8 | 18 | 2971.9660 |
Algeria | 5 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 45350.1480 |
Bahamas | 8 | 2 | 6 | 16 | 400.5160 |
Tunisia | 5 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 12046.6560 |
Philippines | 1 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 112508.9940 |
Israel | 3 | 1 | 9 | 13 | 8922.8920 |
Chile | 2 | 7 | 4 | 13 | 19250.1950 |
Malaysia | 0 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 33181.0720 |
Dominican Republic | 3 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 11056.3700 |
Uganda | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 48432.8630 |
Liechtenstein | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 38.3870 |
Puerto Rico | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 2829.8120 |
Uruguay | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 3496.0160 |
Pakistan | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 229488.9940 |
Hong Kong | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 7604.2990 |
Qatar | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 2979.9150 |
Zimbabwe | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 15331.4280 |
Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 6728.2710 |
Moldova | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4013.1710 |
Cameroon | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 27911.5480 |
Namibia | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2633.8740 |
Singapore | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5943.5460 |
Ecuador | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 18113.3610 |
Ghana | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 32395.4500 |
Vietnam | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 98953.5410 |
Iceland | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 345.3930 |
Luxembourg | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 642.3710 |
Bahrain | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1783.9830 |
Costa Rica | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5182.3540 |
Lebanon | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6684.8490 |
Tajikistan | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9957.4640 |
Syria | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 19364.8090 |
Ivory Coast | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 27742.2980 |
Peru | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 33684.2080 |
Saudi Arabia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 35844.9090 |
San Marino | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 34.0850 |
Grenada | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 113.4750 |
Fiji | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 909.4660 |
Kuwait | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4380.3260 |
Panama | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4446.9640 |
Jordan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10300.8690 |
Bermuda | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 61.9390 |
Suriname | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 596.8310 |
North Macedonia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2081.3040 |
Botswana | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2441.1620 |
United Arab Emirates | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10081.7850 |
Haiti | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11680.2830 |
Burundi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 12624.8400 |
Zambia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 19470.2340 |
Sri Lanka | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 21575.8420 |
Niger | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 26083.6600 |
Mozambique | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 33089.4610 |
Afghanistan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 40754.3880 |
Tanzania | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 63298.5500 |
Tonga | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 107.7490 |
Samoa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 202.2390 |
Barbados | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 288.0230 |
Montenegro | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 627.9500 |
Guyana | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 794.0450 |
Djibouti | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1016.0970 |
Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1223.3870 |
Mauritius | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1274.7270 |
Gabon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2331.5330 |
Eritrea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3662.2440 |
Turkmenistan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6201.9430 |
Paraguay | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7305.8430 |
Togo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8680.8370 |
Senegal | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 17653.6710 |
Guatemala | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 18584.0390 |
Burkina Faso | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 22102.8380 |
Iraq | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 42164.9650 |
Sudan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 45992.0200 |
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