Why the United States is the greatest Olympic nation in history

The Olympics bring the best athletes in the world together to perform at the highest level. The talent across the globe in many different sports is remarkable, but the United States has consistently shown why they are a cut above when it comes to athletic competition.

Olympedia’s website breaks out the medal count over the history of the Olympic Games. The United States has run away with the tally, and it’s not particularly close.

The United States has won 1,229 gold medals, which is 756 more than the next closest country (Soviet Union/Russia).

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The math is similar when looking at silver and bronze medals. The Soviet Union is the closest country in silver medals, and Germany is the closest country in bronze medals, but they are a great distance behind.

All indications are that the United States is in a great position to claim the most medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics as well. Neilson’s Gracenote wrote that the Americans are projected to win 112 overall medals, with 39 of them being gold.

The United States has won the most medals of any country in seven straight Summer Olympic Games, according to NBC Olympics’ website.

Anyone who comes across the sheer number of victories the United States has is sure to point out that the country’s population and participation in a wide variety of events may have the most to do with the volume of medals.

Many may also point to the economic advantages the United States may have when it comes to availability of facilities. However, there are a large number of athletes who sacrifice a lot in order to qualify for the Olympics.

Fortune wrote about American competitors who are forced to make difficult decisions with their finances as they try to make the Olympics. For example, shot putter Ryan Crouser has a very specific diet he has to stick with that involves more food than the average person would consume. The article notes that it’s very expensive to maintain this.

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With that said, most countries are not going to take pity on the United States in this regard. According to the NCAA’s website, the United States as a whole spends over $5 billion on Olympic sports, stemming from colleges and universities. The country doesn’t provide direct financial support to Olympic athletes, but this system usually helps many get their start.

Scott Stricklin is the chair of the USOPC College Sports Sustainability Think Tank, and told the NCAA’s website “We have a tremendous advantage because of what college athletics does, what it provides, and how it has allowed us to not only stock our U.S. Olympic team with collegians but also end up winning a lot of medals.”

Sarah Wilhelmi is the senior director of collegiate partnerships at USOPC, and told the NCAA’s website, “We have the best system in the world, and it’s evident by how our pipeline organically comes through college to Team USA.”

One detail regarding the Americans’ level of success in the Olympics is that there are often familiar sports to participate in. For example, softball and baseball has sporadically been including in the Olympics, although neither will be active in the 2024 Games. Still, this has given the United States a large advantage when going up against countries that are newer to the sport.

There are other sports that have taken a long time to get into the Olympics, that other countries have historically dominated. The Olympics’ website notes that table tennis only became an Olympic sport in 1988, but also noted that countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Germany used to dominate it years earlier. There’s a chance they would have added to their medal count has it been recognized years prior.

The Washington Post took a deeper dive into the United States’ Olympic dominance in 2016. They noted that the Americans seem to dominate the field when it comes to events prioritizing speed, jumping the highest, and being the strongest. There are a lot of medals available in track and field, which has helped the U.S. jump out to a large medal lead.

It’s been clear that the rest of the world has caught up to the United States in traditionally American sports, such as basketball. The United States men’s team has had a much more challenging time in the past couple of decades, despite continuing to win gold on a consistent basis.

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