Of course, one also has to agree how the count should be made. Do you count who has the most gold medals? Or who has the most medals in total? For example, Great Britain had a total of 65 medals, compared to Japan’s 58. But Japan had 5 more gold medals than Great Britain. Many would like to look at only the total medal count, but this might skew the advantage to countries with larger populations who can field more teams. Others \prefer to look at the amount of gold and silver medals, basically weighting them differently.
Perhaps surprisingly for many, but not for members of the country itself, the Netherlands was the country in continental Europe with the best medal count. They finished ahead of France, Germany and Italy when counting gold, silver and bronze medals, although they had fewer total medals than Italy or Germany had.
Yes, the Netherlands, with its population of just under 18 million, outsmarted countries like Germany (83 million), France (67,5 million) and Italy (60+ million). What medals did the Dutch take you might wonder. Were they all cycling medals (something the Dutch have historically been quite good in)? Or were there “real’ sports in there?
In athletics, Sifan Hassan won the gold medal in the women’s 10,000 and 5,000 meter race as well as the bronze in the 1,500 meters. Also in athletics, the men’s 4x400 meter team took home the silver as did the marathon runner Abdi Nageeye. The women’s hockey team also took home the gold. The Dutch women took the silver and bronze medals in the heptathlon.
Yes, most of the medals came from cycling (12) with swimming and rowing filling up the ranks. But when you look at the breadth of sports that the country performed well in, it is quite amazing for its size. Neighboring Belgium, with its 11,5 million population took home what one might consider a ‘normal’ medal count of 7 including 3 gold medals. The Netherlands seems to be hitting well above their weight.
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