The countries that have won most Olympic medals per head of population
By Rob Harris
In Dominica’s case, all it took was one athlete.
Thea LaFond, the only woman from her country competing in track and field, helped her island home to lay claim to the most successful Olympic campaign at Paris 2024.
Thea LaFond of Dominica celebrates after winning gold in the women’s triple jump.Credit: Getty Images
That’s if the barometer of success comes down to gold medals per person. If you’re looking at Olympic medals per head of population, that title goes to Grenada with two bronze medallists.
For Dominica, LaFond’s victory in the women’s triple jump was more than gold. It was the very first Olympic medal for the country, a small, fertile island in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
The top three medal-winning countries with a population under 200,000 are all neighbours: Grenada (population approximately 117,220), Dominica (66,170) and St Lucia (179,790), with sprint gold and silver for Julien Alfred.
While the United States and China have battled it out for supremacy at the top of the overall tally – tied on 40 gold medals (the US with 126 overall and China with 91) – there are plenty of other ways to lay claim to being the greatest.
Australia has long boasted about its tally of gold versus population. Its 18 gold medals – the most in a single Games – has placed it 10th on the per capita list this time and fourth overall.
Australia finished with a total of 53 medals – including 19 silver and 16 bronze – behind China, the US and Japan. The team improved on its medal standings in Rio 2016 (10th) and London 2012 (8th) and went one better than its previous record for the most gold medals at an Olympics (17), set in Athens.
Australia finished third on the medal tally at Melbourne 1956, fourth at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, and fifth at Rome 1960.
For a country with close to 27 million people, Australia won a gold medal for about every 1,500,000 individuals and a medal for every 554,345 people.
But it’s notably well behind trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand for golds per person. The Kiwis’ 10 golds puts them in third place on that table and a remarkable 11th overall. With a population of 5,338,900, it translates into gold for every 533,890 New Zealanders.
It’s an astonishing achievement considering that, between 1988 and 2008, New Zealand didn’t surpass three gold medals in a single Games let alone on one single day as it did on Saturday.
Slovenia’s two golds with a population of 2.1 million, Ireland’s four with a population of 5.28 million and the Netherlands’ 15 gold from 17.97 million (1.198 per person) also has them in the top 10 ahead of the Australians in 11th.
Ireland’s position on the medals table makes it just one of three countries, along with New Zealand and Norway, in the overall top 20 ranking countries with a population of fewer than 6 million.
Four is the highest number of Olympic gold medals Ireland has ever won, doubling the amount won in Tokyo four years ago. The closest Ireland came before that was in Atlanta 1996 with three gold medals from Michelle Smith de Bruin for swimming which, despite the controversy that followed, were not struck from the record.
“My country’s name is Dominica (dah-min-EE-ka). We’re not Dominican Republic, so it’s pronounced differently,” LaFond advised journalists after her win. “We are about roughly 70,000 people. Not 7 million. Not 70 million. Seventy thousand. And it is a gorgeous, gorgeous gem in the Caribbean near to Martinique and Guadeloupe … And now they have a gold medal.”
Neighbouring St Lucia may have claimed the title in any other year. Alfred won the women’s 100 metres and a few days later snared a second medal, silver in the 200 metres.
Alfred, the first athlete from St Lucia to win an Olympic medal, bent forward and started crying a few moments after she won gold
“Growing up, I used to be on the field struggling, with no shoes, running barefoot, running in my school uniform, running all over the place,” Alfred said.
Julien Alfred (right) of St Lucia, after the women’s 200 metres final, with Gabrielle Thomas of the US.Credit: AP
“We barely have the right facilities. The stadium is not fixed. I hope this gold medal will help St Lucia build a new stadium, to help the sport grow.”
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