The Per-Capita Table: Where Superpowers Get Humiliated

Recount the medal table per citizen and the USA vanishes: San Marino's Tokyo 2020 haul works out to one medal per ~11,000 people.

The top 3

  1. San Marino: Smallest Nation Ever to Medal — Then It Won Three: With ~34,000 people and just 5 athletes, San Marino took two shooting medals and a wrestling bronze at Tokyo 2020 — the best single-Games per-capita haul in Olympic history.
  2. Liechtenstein: 10 Medals, One Sport, Mostly One Family: All 10 of Liechtenstein's medals came in alpine skiing — roughly one per 3,600 inhabitants, the best all-time rate — and 7 were won by the Wenzel-Weirather family; it's the only country with Winter medals but none in Summer.
  3. Finland: One Medal per 18,000 People — and a Streak That Just Died: Finland's ~305 Summer medals equal one per ~18,000 citizens, the best rate among traditional powers — but Paris 2024 was its first medal-less Olympics since it started winning in 1908.

Sources

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