An Olympic gold medal is the peak of an athlete’s career, but some countries are just better at producing winners.
Ireland has won a grand total of nine golds from entering 21 Summer Games. The giants of the USA broke the landmark of 1000 Olympic gold medals at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Michael Phelps owns the record for placing at the top of the podium a staggering 18 times in swimming.
One of the greatest moments of the last Olympics was Fiji collecting their first-ever medal, which was gold after winning the seven aside rugby tournament.
Many countries are still yet to have their golden moment.
My top sports moments of 2016
Number 14 #Fiji win there first ever #Olympics medal with #Gold In men's #rugby7s #rugby pic.twitter.com/IuAAU81RJp— @Georgebakhos1 (@GeorgeBakhos1) January 22, 2017
Some of the countries without a first place
Between 50-60 countries are yet to win a medal at the games and those that haven’t won first place are much higher.
Bangladesh is the country with the largest population (170 million) in the world to never win a medal.
Many countries in Africa and Central America are also yet to claim their first podium finish, mostly down to the poor economy in the country not being able to support the sports teams.
In Europe, Iceland, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have not won a gold medal yet including at the Winter Olympics.
Newly recognized Kosovo has managed to win a gold in judo in their first-ever games last time around.
The Dark Horses wanting Olympic gold
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz is hoping to bring home the first-ever gold medal to the Philippines at Tokyo 2020.
The 30-year-old placed 2nd in the competition in 2016 and wants to go one better this year.
She has been stuck in Malaysia for most of 2020 but it has only given her more time to train.
Pavlos Kontides is hoping to become Cyprus’ first gold medallist. The Cypriot sailor is currently their only medallist after finishing second in London 2012.
With Kosovo, Fiji, and Ivory Coast picking up their first golds in Rio, let’s see what surprises are in store for Tokyo 2020.
"The pressure is so high."
30-year-old weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz has been stuck in Malaysia since early 2020 due to #Covid19. After taking silver in the 2016 #Olympics, @diaz_hidilyn hopes to bring home the first-ever gold medal for the Philippines at #Tokyo2020 in Japan pic.twitter.com/bFrKVvnftC
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) June 9, 2021
