Who has dominated the Olympic medal tallies since the modern olympics started?

Question

Who has dominated the Olympic medal tallies since the modern olympics started?

Answer 1

USA of course and that might be why so many sore losers winging about not being the top gold medal scoring nation

Answer 2

Counting total medals by countries may not be seen as fair by some since countries that are now one nation used to be two or more before (West and East Germany), and since they competed through a different NOC their medals were not combined. Also, not all countries competed in the same amount of games. The U.S. has competed in all of them, while the USSR only competed from 1952 to 1988 (or 1992, if you count the Unified Team).

Instead, a better way to look at dominance is by looking at who has won the majority of games they've participated in.

From 1900 to 1952 twelve Olympic games were held (1916, 1940, 1944 were canceled due to WWI and WWII). Of those 12 games, the United States won eight games, so they were dominant. From 1954, the second Olympic Games the Soviet Union competed in (their first was 1952), they took over as the dominant country, winning seven of the nine games (counting the Unified Team).

After the USSR disappeared the U.S. again regained dominance and held that throughout the 1990s. Starting with the Beijing Games, it looks like the Chinese, who have adopted the Soviet system for training their athletes, may become the dominant Olympics powerhouse of the future.

In short:

1900-1952 = United States

1954-1988 (or 1992) = USSR

1996-2004 = United States

2008- = Maybe China?

Answer 3

Overall, for both summer and winter totals...the USA has 2404, The Soviet Union has 1204 and Italy is 3rd with 595. For summer olympics, USA is 1st with 2188 then the Soviet Union with 1010 and France is 3rd all-time with 596. For winter olympics, Norway is 1st with 280, then USA with 216 and then the Soviet Union with 194.

Answer 4

The US has dominated with over 2400 total medals and nobody has come even close.  The Soviet Union accumulated about half that, and then it drops down to about 600 for countries like Germany.

Answer 5

USA

USA

USA