If you ever wondered which are the countries that have the most gold medals, our article gives a definitive answer. Athletes from these countries showed exceptional abilities and deservedly have their names written in the history books.
Awarding medals for the best athletes at the Olympics is a modern thing. Back in ancient Greece, the winners were not given medals, but the olive wreath instead. Medals were introduced in 1896 when the first modern Olympics took place in Greece. However, the winners of the first modern Olympics didn’t receive a gold medal. They received a silver medal and an olive wreath.
The gold, silver and bronze medal for first three places was introduced in 1904 when the Olympics were held in the United States. The International Olympic Committee later rewarded gold, silver and bronze medals to the first three places for 1896 and 1900 Olympics. When Winter Olympic Games were introduced in 1924, they’ve continued the practice of awarding gold, silver and bronze medals. Throughout the years, some countries have shown that they have better athletes and accumulated a bigger number of medals. If you like to read about top countries, check out our list of Country by Country Life Expectancy: The World’s 15 Healthiest Countries.
To get the list of the 10 countries that have the most gold medals, we decided to take into consideration both Summer and Winter Olympic Games. We summed up the gold medals using data from Top End Sports that shows all time medal count for Summer and Winter Olympics per country. Let’s check out the most successful ones.
