If it feels like the same countries are winning most of the Olympic medals every two years, that’s because it’s largely true.
Even though more than 150 countries and territories have claimed a medal since the modern Games began in 1896, the list of winners is top-heavy. Entering the Paris Summer Games, the United States has the most, by far, with 2,975 medals, according to the International Olympic Committee’s research wing. A group of usual suspects follow: the former Soviet Union (1,204), Germany (1,058), Great Britain (955), France (898).
Nearly 70 countries and territories, though — roughly a third of the parade of nations — cannot boast an Olympic medalist in any discipline, summer or winter. Some, like South Sudan, which sent its first team to the Olympics in 2016, have only just begun trying. Others, like Monaco, have been at it for more than a century.
“It’s frustrating, definitely,” said Marco Luque, a member of the Bolivian Olympic Committee’s board and the president of his country’s track and field federation. “And you feel impotence, of not being able to do better.”
Every once in a while, though, a nation breaks its maiden. On Saturday night at the Stade de France, Thea LaFond-Gadson, 30, of the Caribbean island of Dominica, won the gold medal in women’s triple jump. And soon after, Julien Alfred, 23, of St. Lucia, also in the Caribbean, won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter sprint.
“It means a lot to the small islands,” she said. “And seeing how we can come from a small place but also be on the biggest stage of our career.”
For countries and territories that have always competed in vain, Saturday’s medalists provided renewed hope: If they can do it, why can’t we?
“I want to make my country happy and show that anything is possible,” said Héctor Garibay, 36, a marathoner who Bolivians hope will finally get their country on the medals table.
Bolivia, a South American country of 12 million, attended its first Games in 1936. In 22 trips to the Olympics — 15 Summer Games, seven Winter — it has never sent an athlete to the medal podium.
The only countries with more Olympic appearances and equally unsatisfying results, according to the I.O.C.? Monaco (32 times) and Andorra (25).
The list of countries and territories yet to win is a reflection of history, politics and economics. It is filled with small ones (such as Eswatini, Bhutan and Tuvalu), underprivileged ones (such as the Central African Republic, Yemen and Honduras), newer ones (such the Seychelles, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belize) — and some that are a combination of all three.
“We are a very poor country,” said Chaturananda Rajvaidya, the executive director and a vice president of the Nepalese Olympic Committee.
Nepal, with a population of 31 million, has a gross domestic product per capita of $1,300, one of the lowest in the world, according to the World Bank. It has not won an official medal in 18 trips to the Olympics, tied with Myanmar for disappointment among Asian countries.
“Our investment in sports itself is very low,” Rajvaidya continued. “So now sports is a sort of business. How much you can invest and, in the same ratio, you get the results.”
It is harder to develop medalists, officials and athletes said, when a country can’t spend much on training, nutrition, facilities or stipends for competitors. And most Olympians aren’t multimillionaire athletes like LeBron James, Simone Biles and Rafael Nadal, so competing at this elite level can be a financial struggle.
For big events, Rajvaidya said the Nepalese government pitches in financially. But there are more pressing needs in the country, such as roads, hospitals and schools, he said. So the funding for the Nepalese Olympians’ training comes from the I.O.C.’s so-called solidarity program.
The I.O.C. said it will spend $590 million between 2021 and 2024 on helping, among others, athletes and coaches from countries with “the greatest financial need.” In the modern sports landscape, it said this is “particularly vital” because “talent and determination alone are not enough to reach the top.”
Of the 11,000 athletes who participated in the Tokyo Games in 2021, 827 were solidarity scholarship recipients who came from 178 National Olympic committees, according to the I.O.C. They won 113 medals.
That included three countries earning their first Olympic medals: Turkmenistan (a silver in women’s weight lifting), Burkina Faso (a bronze in men’s triple jump) and San Marino (the European microstate with 35,000 people won three medals and became the smallest country to medal).
(The I.O.C. also tries to boost participation from less represented countries and territories through what are known as universality places or wild-card spots in events.)
Luque said Bolivia’s national Olympic committee receives no direct government funding and relies on Olympic solidarity funding and other donations. That money, he said, is distributed to the sports federations in the country, with sums ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 a year.
But qualifying for certain sports, Luque said, requires lots of travel, “and spending a lot money on international competitions with $7,000 a year is impossible.”
Money isn’t everything. Monaco has a gross domestic product per capita of $241,000, the highest in the world, according to the World Bank, but a population of 36,000, one of the smallest.
“Smaller countries have less of a talent pool than larger countries,” said Kirani James, 31, a sprinter from Grenada. He speaks from experience: His Caribbean island has 125,000 residents, yet he brought home its first medal, a gold in the 400-meter dash, in 2012. (He won silver and bronze in subsequent Olympics.)
Sometimes, a large pool of potential athletes isn’t enough. Bangladesh, with 173 million people, is the most populous country never to win an Olympic medal.
Despite their sizes, Hungary (10 million) and Cuba (11 million) punch far above their weight because of deliberate government spending. Entering Paris, Hungary has won 521 Olympic medals and Cuba 235 — far more than the 35 earned by India, with 1.4 billion people.
Jamaica, several officials and athletes said, was an example of a smaller country (2.8 million) winning many medals by playing to its strength (all but one of its 88 are in track and field). With the 2028 Summer Games in mind, Luque said the Bolivian Olympic committee was studying how to focus its efforts on the sports the country does best and thus improving its odds of finally winning a medal.
“Success has a waterfall effect,” said swimmer Sylvia Poll, 53, who claimed Costa Rica’s first medal, a silver, in 1988. “Once you get a triumph of that level, it has that collective pride that motivates people but it also pushes them to practice sports and, in my case, there are now more pools and more people swimming.”
When Poll touched the pool wall second during the 200-meter freestyle, she said she felt a “beautiful sensation.” Then she became a national hero. The president of the country called. She received several bags of faxed messages from Costa Rica.
When Poll returned home to the capital, San José, she was received by a parade of fans. At her house, she said at least 50 flower arrangements awaited. She also received many drawings from little children, some erroneously depicting her as the gold medal winner.
“I felt so proud to not only represent Costa Rica, but all of Central America,” Poll said. She was born in Nicaragua but her family, amid the country’s war, left for Costa Rica when she was 8. (Nicaragua has never won an Olympic medal.)
James, Grenada’s first medalist, received not only a hero’s welcome but also was awarded a government payout worth roughly $185,000 then and a commemorative stamp. He was appointed a Grenada tourism ambassador and a stadium was named after him, which he called a “huge honor.”
He said he was happy to do something “that gives Grenadian people a sense of pride and a sense of identity.”
LaFond-Gadson said she hoped her victory would motivate government officials in her country, which has only grass tracks and where those who want to train on all-weather surfaces must take a boat to a neighboring country. She said the biggest problem has been getting land allocated for a track.
“I’m really hoping is this medal kind of lights a fire under all government officials to get that done,” she said. “I want a place where the next generation doesn’t necessarily have to go overseas.”
Even if Nepal doesn’t win a medal in Paris, Rajvaidya said it won’t mean the Olympics were unsuccessful. He said that the “cultural exchange” between the Nepalese athletes and those from other countries is valuable.
“Everybody will live in the Olympic Village and they discuss and learn from each other and they can apply what they learned back home,” he said.
Still, Garibay said he wished countries that have never won medals invested more in sports, particularly the individual disciplines. When he switched from soccer to running in 2019 after an injury, he drove a taxi in his spare time to help fund his training.
After posting strong times and qualifying for Paris, Garibay earned private sponsorships and has inspired Bolivians to dream about history.
“I’m not thinking yet about what will come next,” he said. “But I know that everything I’ve been training for I’ll leave in the competition.”
