The most decorated Olympian from each country in the world
Sport is wonderful, because it has been shown that everything is possible: a new record, a perfect score, a hawk eye that says he did go in, a goal in the 92nd minute...
And for sports emotions, the one that begins this July 23, the day the Tokyo Olympics start. To honor its protagonists, RAVE Reviews has developed a map with the best Olympic athletes in the world.
This map collects top olympic medal winners of all time, awarding points for each medal won (gold = 4 points, silver = 3, bronze = 1).
In addition to identifying the most decorated Olympians, the study has also determined (and mapped) the sport in which each country has more medals and to overcome the gender gap, "we identify the best Olympic woman if the most successful of a country was a man", they point out.
Who will go home with the most medals this year? Historical data collected on the map could hold the answer. However, we will have to take into account the new promises as well as the possible surprises that these games surely await us.
The Tokyo Olympic Stadium seen from the observation deck of the Shibuya Scramble Square building
KEY RESULTS
One of the key results revealed by the RAVE Reviews study is that 135 countries have won at least one Olympic medal, but 38 of them have never won gold.
The most successful athlete is male in 104 countries out of 135 (77%) and female in 27 (20%) . The rest is tied.
The most successful male athlete is the American swimmer Michael Phelps with 100 points obtained from his 28 medals (23 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze); Y the most successful female national athlete is Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina with 50 points out of 18 medals (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze).
GYMNASTS HAVE THE POWER
Before we delve into each of the continents, let's take a look the most successful Olympians from each country, the sport in which each country has won the most medals, and the top 15 Olympians in the world.
Women were banned from competing in the first modern Olympic Games. Games founder Pierre de Coubertin wrote that "the women's semi-Olympics is impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I have no hesitation in adding, inadequate."
It was not until 1976 (Montreal) that female participation exceeded 20%. In 2012 (London), every country sent at least one woman to the competition.
Gymnasts dominate the list of the 10 most successful national athletes (four out of 10). the legendary Larissa Latinina kept the record for the most Olympic medals (regardless of gender) for almost half a century, from 1964 to 2012: 18 awards, including nine gold.
The most successful Olympian from each country
THE OLYMPIC SPORT WHERE EACH COUNTRY STANDS OUT
As for the Olympic sport where each country excels, athletics tops the list, as 39 countries around the world excel in different athletics disciplines.
The second most dominant sport in boxing: 16 countries (including Cuba, Poland, Argentina and Kazakhstan) owe most of their medals to this sport.
Wrestling is the most successful sport in 12 countries (such as Sweden, Finland and Turkey, among others) and up to 10 countries are more successful in swimming (such as the United States, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada).
The United States has the "national sport" with the highest success rate. American swimmers have accumulated 1,463 points, with 246 Olympic golds. This is almost triple Second-placed Russia, whose swimmers are its most successful Olympians (596 points).
The Olympic sport where each country excels
TOP 15 ATHLETES
Regardless of country, the list of the 15 most successful Olympic medal winners in history contains six gymnasts and five swimmers. (due in part to the large number of disciplines and events within each sport).
Also, six of the top fifteen athletes are American , while five used to represent Russia or the Soviet Union.
Only four of the 15 most successful athletes in modern Olympic history are women: soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina , the german kayaker Birgit Fischer , the American swimmer Jenny Thompson and the Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska.
With a height of 1.95m, a wingspan of 2.05cm, Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian of all time. The American swimmer 23 Olympic gold medals, including a record eight golds at Beijing 2008.
After Larisa Latynina, German kayaker Birgit Fischer is the top female national treasure. She represented both East Germany and, after reunification, Germany.
Fischer has been the youngest and oldest Olympic canoeing champion, her winning both her first Olympiad (at age 18) and her last Olympiad (at age 42); this last one already announced her retirement twice.
The top 15 would look like this:
1. Michael Phelps (United States, Swimming, 28 medals)
1. Larissa Latynina (Russia, Gymnastics, 18 medals)
1. Paavo Nurmi (Finland, Athletics - Long Distance, 12 medals)
1. Nikolai Andryanov (Russia, Gymnastics, 15 medals)
1. Birgit Fischer (Germany, Canoe, 12 medals)
1. Mark Spitz (United States, Swimming, 11 medals)
1. Sawao Katō (Japan, Gymnastics, 12 medals)
1. Jenny Thompson (United States, Swimming, 12 medals)
1. carl lewis (United States, Athletics – Sprints, 10 medals)
1. Boris Shakhlin (Russia, Gymnastics, 13 medals)
1. Matt Biondi (United States, Swimming, 11 medals)
1. Věra Čáslavská (Czech Republic, Gymnastics, 11 medals)
1. Edoardo Mangiarotti (Italy, Fencing, 13 medals)
1. Victor Chukarin (Russia, Gymnastics, 11 medals)
1. Ryan Locht (United States, Swimming, 12 medals)
Remember that depending on whether they are gold, silver or bronze, they score 4, 3 and 1.
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
After Michael Phelps (by water), the fastest athletes in the world (by land) are the Jamaican Usain Bolt (with 8 golds and 32 points), who named his daughter Olympia Lightning Bolt; and Pauline Davis-Thompson (Bahamas) , which debuted in 1984 but won her two golds at the age of 34 at her last Olympics in 2000 (Sydney).
In fact, Davis-Thompson did not receive the 200m gold from her until 2009, when the original Sydney winner, Marion Jones, was stripped of her title for doping.
In Canada, she wins the duo formed by Marnie Mcbean and Kathleen Heddle, with 13 points; while in Cuba, with 18 points, the most successful athlete is Ramon Segundo (fencing).
The discipline that is repeated the most is athletics, where the following stand out: Erick Barrondo (Guatemala), Irving Saladino (Panama), Silvio Cator (Haiti), Flix Marcelo (Dominican Republic), Obadele Thompson (Barbados) and Richard Thompson (Trinidad and Tobago).
Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian of all time
SOUTH AMERICA
Many claim that Robert Scheidt is not human. The Brazilian swimmer is the most successful Olympic athlete in all of South America, with two gold medals, two silver and one bronze.
Uruguay and Paraguay also have a lot to celebrate, as both have soccer teams as their most decorated Olympians. Paraguay (runner-up in 2004) has two points per player, while the eight Uruguayans who led the country to gold in both 1924 and 1928 have eight points each.
Building on these victories, Uruguay was selected to host the first World Cup in 1930, which it also won.
Eleven Olympians on the map have won two gold medals, including: the Uruguayan goalkeeper Andres Mazali, the Argentine tennis player Nicolás Massú, the Argentine soccer player (defender and midfielder) Javier Mascherano and the Colombian cyclist Mariana Pajón.
Mariana Pajón, Colombia's most decorated Olympic athlete, she told Olympic Channel that: “when I started the sport, there were no girls. I opened the way so that others could follow me. Initially, they closed the door on me and told my parents that girls shouldn't do this."
The most awarded Olympic athletes in South America
EUROPE
Three of the top five national Olympians in Europe are women. the gymnast Larissa Latynina she is the most successful Olympian in Europe and of all time, with nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze.
The second best European athlete Paavo Nurmi, "The Flying Finn", he is also the third most decorated Olympian in history.
The middle and long distance runner set 22 world records and he won gold medals in the 1,500m and 5,000m in the same afternoon. However, his success did not make him happy. "Worldly fame and reputation are worth less than a rotten cranberry" he told The Guardian a year before his death.
They follow in third place the German canoeist Birgit Fischer, with eight gold and four silver medals; and in fourth place Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská, who won seven Olympic golds for what was then Czechoslovakia.
Čáslavská spent the three weeks leading up to the 1968 Games in hiding for having made statements against the Soviet invasion and "kept fit by hanging from trees and practicing his floor exercises in a meadow."
The map of the most successful Olympians in each country of Europe
The fifth and sixth places on the European map are occupied by the Italian Edoardo Mangiarotti (fencing), with six gold, five silver and two bronze medals; and the Hungarian Aladar Gerevich (fencing), with seven gold medals, one silver and two bronze.
Four athletes have been awarded six golds: the British Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny (cycling) , the Belgian Hubert Van Innis (archery) and the swedish Gert Fredriksson (canoeing).
In Spain, the Olympic athlete par excellence is the canoeist David Cal Figueroa, which has one gold and four bronze medals.
They also highlight: Roger Ducret and Phillipe Cattiau (fencing, France), Otto Olsen (Olympic shooting, Norway), Yana Klochkova (swimming, Ukraine), Nadia Comaneci (gymnastics, Romania), Leon Stukelj (gymnastics, Serbia), Anky Van Grunsven (equestrian, Netherlands) and Georg Miez (gymnastics, Switzerland).
MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA
Turkish weightlifters Halil Mutlu and the late Naim Süleymanoğlu They share the first place in this territory, each with three golds and 12 points.
Mutlu is one of only four weightlifters to have achieved three consecutive gold medals and breaking multiple world records.
With the 1.47 meter height of him, Süleymanoğlu was nicknamed “the pocket Hercules” and he's famous for lifting three times his bodyweight in the clean-and-jerk.
In second place we find the Iranian Hadi Saei (taekwondo), with two golds and one bronze; followed by Ilya Ilyin (weightlifting, Kazakhstan).
Ruth Jebet, for her part, was the local heroine of Bahrain, she taking gold in the 3000m steeplechase at Rio 2016. The Kenyan-born runner was provisionally sanctioned in July 2018 after testing positive for EPO.
The sanction was confirmed in 2020, with a duration of four years with retroactive effect from the moment of control. This sanction, therefore, does not nullify her Olympic title or her record from 2016.
The map of the most successful athletes in the Middle East and Central Asia
REST OF ASIA AND OCEANIA
Gymnast Sawao Kato is the most awarded Asian athlete (Takashi Ono has more medals but less points). Kato competed in the late 1960s and 1970s, a golden age for Japanese gymnasts, who faced fierce competition from Russia.
Sawao Kato has twelve Olympic medals: eight gold, three silver and one bronze.
Chinese high jumper Wu Minxia is the most successful Olympic athlete from this region, with 7 Olympic medals (including 5 gold) among her loot. She retired in 2016.
The second most decorated athlete is Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe (five golds, three silvers and one bronze). With four gold medals we find the South Korean shooter Jin Jong Oh and the Australian canoeist Ian Ferguson.
The most decorated Olympic athletes from the rest of Asia and Oceania
AFRICA
Swimmer Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) is Africa's most decorated Olympian, she with seven medals (two of them gold), won between the Games of Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
she was named Zimbabwe Minister of Sport and she has run several campaigns related to doping and reducing youth drowning rates.
The second most successful athlete in Africa is the Ethiopian long-distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba, with three gold and three bronze medals.
tied at 10 points the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj and the Botswanan Nijel Amos, both in athletics - middle distance, while the Kenyan Kipchoge Keino reaches twelve points in the same discipline.
Surely in these Olympic Games, new heroes will jump on the podium, place your bets!
The Olympic map of Africa and its most popular athletes
METHODOLOGY
Athletes were ranked according to the Olympic medals they won using an exponential point system (gold = 4 points, silver = 2 points, bronze = 1 point).
To determine the most dominant sport in each country, the same principle was applied. Athletics was subdivided into Sprints, Middle distance, Long distance, Hurdles, Relays, Jumps, Throws and Combined Events.
In the event of a tie in points, the athlete or sport with the most total medals it was considered the most successful in that country.
Olympic athletes and their medals won for representing countries that no longer exist (for example, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East and West Germany) were counted as representatives of the historical successor countries, ie Russia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Germany.
The medal count of any individual Olympian only includes the medals he won while representing the same country.
The data used, as of March 2021, were extracted from olympic.org
The 15 most successful Olympians of all time