Friday, August 10, 2012

Top 20 Olympic Nations of All Time

1) USA- 2582 total medals   (1032 golds)
---Summer: 2327   (first overall)
---Winter: 254    (second overall)
Dominant Sports: Track and Field (759 medals, more than that of the next five countries combined!), Swimming (493), Diving (128), Basketball (24, 19 of which were gold), Figure Skating (47),  Snowboarding (19), Shooting (103), Boxing (108), Freestyle Skiing (14), Rowing (84)
Greatest Olympians: Michael Phelps (swimming), Jesse Owens (athletics), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (long jump, heptathlon), Jim Thorpe (pentathlon, decathlon), Carl Lewis (athletics), Edwin Moses (hurdles), Cassius Clay (boxing), Babe Didrikson (track and field), Mark Spitz (swimming), Rafer Johnson (decathlon), Greg Louganis (diving), Eric Heiden (speed skating), Al Oerter (discus), Bonnie Blair (speed skating), Michael Johnson (sprinting), Florence Griffith-Joyner (track), Bob Mathias (decathlon), Bob Beamon (long jump), Dan O'Brien (decathlon), Wilma Rudolph (track), Ray Ewry (track and field), Apolo Anton Ohno (speed skating), Matthew Biondi (swimming), Bruce Jenner (decathlon), Mary Lou Retton (gymnastics), Jenny Thompson (swimming) Dara Torres (swimming), Dick Fosbury (high jump), Johnny Weismuller (swimming).

2) Soviet Union- 1204 total medals   (473 golds)
---Summer: 1010   (second overall)
---Winter: 194   (fifth overall)
Dominant Sports: Gymnastics (193), Volleyball (12), Weightlifting (62)
Greatest Olympians: Larisa Latynina (gymnastics), Olga Korbut (gymnastics), Nikolai Andrianov (gymnastics), Boris Shakhlin (gymnastics), Lidia Skoblikova (speed skating), Irina Rodnina (figure skating), Dmitry Bilozerchev (gymnastics), Vladislav Tretyak (hockey goalie), Nellie Kim (gymnastics), Pavel Lednyov (modern petathlon)

3) Germany- 899 total medals   (282 golds)
---Summer: 684   (fifth overall)
---Winter: 209   (third overall)
Dominant Sports: Biathlon (43),  Luge (31)
Greatest Olympians: Brigit Fischer (canoeing), Claudia Pechstein (speed skating), Reiner Klimke (equestrian), Hans Günter Winkler (equestrian), Kati Wilhelm (biathlon)

4) France- 787 total medals   (238 golds)
---Summer: 693   (fourth overall)
---Winter: 156    (twelfth overall)
Dominant Sports: Cycling (93)
Greatest Olympians: Christian d'Oriola (fencing), Jean-Claude Killy (alpine skiing), The Goitschel sisters (alpine skiing), David Douillet (judo)

5) Great Britain-771 total medals   (226 golds)
---Summer: 746   (third overall)
---Winter: 25   (twenty-first overall)
Dominant Sports: Tennis (40)
Greatest Olympians: Steve Redgrave (rowing), Daley Thompson (decathlon), Sebastian Coe (track), Chris Hoy (cycling), Jayne Torvill and Christophen Dean (ice dancing)

6)  Italy- 6563 total medals   (242 golds)
---Summer: 554   (sixth overall)
---Winter: 109    (eleventh overall)
Greatest Olympians: Edoardo Mangiarotti (fencing), Alberto Tomba (alpine skiing), Nedo Nadi (fencing)

7) Sweden- 621 total medals   (194 golds)
---Summer: 489   (seventh overall)
---Winter: 129    (eighth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Gert Fredriksson (canoeing), Gunde Svan (cross-country skiing), Gillis Grafström (figure skating), Sixten Jernberg (cross-country skiing), Ingemar Stenmark (alpine skiing)

8) East Germany- 519 total medals   (192 golds)
---Summer: 409   (tenth overall)
---Winter: 100    (tenth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Kristin Otto (swimming), Katarina Witt (figure skating), Brigit Fischer (canoeing), Roland Matthes (swimming)

9) Hungary- 479 total medals   (162 golds) 
---Summer: 473   (eighth overall)
---Winter: 6    (thirtieth overall)
Dominant Sports- Water Polo (15)
Greatest Olympians: Krisztina Egerszegi (swimming), Aladár Gerevich (fencing), Ágnes Keleti (gymnastics), Tamás Darnyi (swimming), András Balczó (pentathlon), László Papp (boxing), Dezső Gyarmati (water polo)

10) Finland- 464 total medals   (147 golds) 
---Summer: 308   (fourteenth overall)
---Winter: 156    (sixth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Paavo Nurmi (middle and long-distance running), Ville Ritola (long-distance runner), Matti Nykänen (ski jumping), Clas Thunberg (speed skating)

11) Norway- 454 total medals   (164 gold)
---Summer: 151   (twenty-sixth overall)
---Winter: 303   (first overall)
Dominant Sports: Nordic Combined (26),  Cross-Country Skiing (96)
Greatest Olympians: Bjørn Dæhlie (cross-country skiing), Ole Einar Bjørndalen (biathlon), Thomas Alsgaard (cross-country skiing), Kjetil André Aamodt (alpine skiing), Johann Olav Koss (speed skating), Sonja Henie (figure skating)

12) Australia- 449 total medals   (137 gold)
---Summer: 440    (ninth overall)
---Winter: 9   (twenty-fifth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Ian Thorpe (swimming), Murray Rose (swimming), Dawn Fraser (swimming), Rechelle Hawkes (hockey)

13) China- 435 total medals   (176 gold)
---Summer: 391   (eleventh overall)
---Winter: 44   (sixteenth overall)
Dominant Sports: Badminton (30), Table Tennis (41)
Greatest Olympians: Guo Jingjing (diving), Wang Meng (speed skating), Wang Nan (table tennis), Li Xiaopeng (gymnastics), Wang Junxia (long-distance runner), Deng Yaping (table tennis), Gao Ling (badminton)

14) Russia- 417 total medals   (146 gold)
---Summer: 326    (thirteenth overall)
---Winter: 91    (thirteenth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Alexander Popov (swimming), Lyubov Yegorova (cross-country skiing), Aleksandr Karelin (wrestling), Alexei Nemov (gymnastics), Dmitri Sautin (diving)

15) Canada- 408 total medals   (111 gold)
---Summer: 263   (seventeenth overall)
---Winter: 145   (seventh overall)
Dominant Sports: Curling (8), Ice Hockey (18, 11 of which were golds)
Greatest Olympians:  Clara Hughes (speed skating, cycling), Donovan Bailey (sprinting), Gaétan Boucher (speed skating)

16) Japan- 402 total medals   (132 gold)
---Summer: 365   (twelfth overall)
---Winter: 37   (eighteenth overall)
Dominant Sports: Judo (66), Synchronized Swimming (12)
Greatest Olympians: Sawao Kato (gymnastics), Tadahiro Nomura (judo), Akinori Nakayama (gymnastics), Mitsuo Tsukahara (gymnastics), Takashi Ono (gymnastics), Ryoko Tani (judo)

17) Netherlands- 344 total medals   (103 gold)
---Summer: 258   (eighteenth overall)
---Winter: 86   (fourteenth overall)
Greatest Olympians: Fanny Blankers-Koen (track), Inge de Bruijn (swimming), Leontien van Moorsel (cycling)

18) Switzerland- 325 total medals   (97 gold)
---Summer: 198   (twenty-second overall)
---Winter: 127   (ninth overall)
Dominant Sports: Bobsledding (30)
Greatest Olympians: Vreni Schneider (alpine skiing), Georges Miez (gymnastics), Simon Ammann (ski jumping)

19) Austria- 307 total medals   (80 gold)
---Summer: 106   (thirty-first overall)
---Winter: 201    (fourth overall)
Dominant Sports: Alpine Skiing (105)
Greatest Olympians: Toni Sailer (alpine skiing), Hermann Maier (alpine skiing)

20) Romania- 294 total medals   (86 gold)
---Summer: 293    (fifteenth overall)
---Winter: 1    (forty-first overall)
Greatest Olympians: Nadia Comăneci (gymnastics), Elisabeta Lipă (rowing), Ecaterina Szabo (gymnastics)

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