2024 Olympics by the numbers
The flame is extinguished, the Olympic flag has been passed from the Mayor of Paris to the Mayor of Los Angeles.
11,119 athletes from 206 nations competed across 329 medal according to the IOC, nearly triple the number competing in the 1924 Paris games. The summer games have drawn more than 10,000 athletes beginning in 1996 in Atlanta, including the covid-complicated 2020 games in Tokyo.
Host country France entered at least one athlete in each of the 45 disciplines from Archery to Wrestling. The United States competed in all but handball.
18 world records were broken across nine sports including archery (1), cycling (5), swimming (4), athletics (3), modern pentathlon (3), speed climbing (2), weightlifting (2), and canoe sprint (1). Another 45 Olympic records fell across seven sports including archery (2), shooting (6), swimming (15), athletics (10), modern pentathlon (1), weightlifting (9), and rowing (1).
17% athletes at the games earned a place on one of 45 podiums with a design echoing the metal lace of the Eiffel Tower. Podiums ranged from 13 feet wide for individual events to the 130 foot wide podium at Parc des Princes to accommodate 66 football team members.
23 wheelchair accessible podiums are also ready for the Paralympic Games beginning in 12 days.
Medal Table
You’ve probably seen the medal table with the United States at the top with 126 total medals. Team USA tied China with 40 gold medals, a first for the summer games.
But is medal count the best way to judge Olympic success?
Weighting the medals (3 points for a gold, 2 for silver, 1 for a bronze) doesn’t change the rankings.
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
Weighted Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 40 | 44 | 42 | 126 | 250 |
| China | 40 | 27 | 24 | 91 | 198 |
| France | 14 | 26 | 22 | 65 | 122 |
| 16 | 22 | 29 | 64 | 115 | |
| Australia | 18 | 19 | 16 | 53 | 108 |
| Japan | 20 | 12 | 13 | 45 | 97 |
| Italy | 12 | 13 | 15 | 40 | 77 |
| Netherlands | 15 | 7 | 12 | 34 | 71 |
| Germany | 12 | 13 | 8 | 33 | 70 |
| 13 | 9 | 10 | 21 | 67 |
The United States also tops countries in events resulting in a Team USA medal.
| Country | events entered |
gold medals |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 283 | |||
| Kenya | 25 | 16% | 44% |
| Saint Lucia | 5 | 20% | 40% |
| – | |||
| China | 247 | 16% | 37% |
| Dominica | 4 | 25% | 25% |
These medal tallies tend to favor countries and athletes participating in athletics’ 48 medal events and swimming’s 35.
If you watched the opening ceremonies, you probably noticed some teams sent hundreds of athletes filling the largest tour boats along the Seine River. Others sent only a few, but also had the highest percentage of athletes go on to medal.
| country | athletes | gold medals | any medals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Saint Lucia | 4 | 25% | 50% |
| 2. North Korea | 14 | – | 43% |
| 3. Kyrgyzstan | 16 | – | 38% |
| 4. Grenada | 6 | – | 33% |
| 5. Bahrain | 14 | 14% | 29% |
| 6. Iran | 41 | 7% | 29% |
| 7. Armenia | 15 | – | 27% |
| 8. Dominica | 4 | 25% | 25% |
| 9. Albania | 8 | – | 25% |
| 10. Kosovo | 9 | – | 25% |
| 13. China | 577 | 7% | 16% |
| 20. United States | 619 | 6% | 20% |
| 43. France | 600 | 3% | 11% |
Each athlete was representing their country, but some bore a heavier weight than others. Fiji’s 36 athletes represented their island nation well winning 15 medals per million residents, While India’s 112 athletes had the insurmountable job of representing 1.4 billion people bringing home 0.015 medals per million residents.
Team USA produced 0.77 medals per million Americans, China returns 0.12, and the home team earned 1 medal per million French citizen.
Athlete success
French Swimmer Leon Marchand makes a strong statement for most successful athlete of the 2024 games with 4 gold and a bronze. American swimmers Torri Huske and Regan Smith each bring home five as well (three and two gold respectively).
Huske and Smith also earned medals in each event they swam. A total of 419 athletes demonstrating similar consistency earning gold in each event they competed in.
South Korean archers Woojin Kim, and Sihyeon Lim along with kayaker Lisa Carrington of New Zealand won gold in each of their three events. American pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik also earned a place in the 100% club pushing the US men’s team over the line to win the bronze then going on to win an individual bronze of his own.
But only Chinese swimmer Yufei Zhang brought home six medals, five bronze and a silver.
Note: Team USA’s medal count does not include the bronze stripped from gymnast Jordan Chiles.
Source: wral.com