Nations to top Summer Olympics medal table on most occasions
The 33rd edition of Summer Olympics will be underway on July 26 in Paris. Over 10,000 athletes will feature at the Paris Games for 19 days, which involves 329 events. Notably, USA, France, United Kingdom, and China are among the favorites to clinch the most medals. Here we look at the nations to have sealed the Olympic medal table on most occasions (Summer Games).
USA tops the chart
A total of 18 Olympic Games have seen USA top the medal tally. Their best campaign came at the 1904 Olympic Games, held in St Louis. The host nation returned with 231 medals that year out of which 76 were gold. The tally also includes 78 silver and 77 bronze medals. USA have topped the table in six of the last seven Summer Games.
Soviet Union — 6 times
Soviet Union (USSR) is the only other unit besides USA to top the Summer Olympics medal tally on multiple occasions. The transcontinental nation finished at the top six times (1956, 1960, 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1988). Notably, the Soviet Union featured in just nine Summer Olympic editions with the 1988 Games being its last. 1980 was their best year in terms of medals (195).
Other nations to top the chart
France (1900), Great Britain (1908), Germany (1936), China (2008), and the Unified Team (1992) are the other units to top the Summer Olympics charts. They have reached the milestone once apiece. Notably, the Unified Team was the joint unit consisting of twelve of the fifteen former Soviet republics. Their only Summer Olympics appearance came in 1992.
