If we recall the entire history of the Olympic Games, we can say that most of the medals belong to Greek athletes. But this is not entirely correct: the competitions began to be held in Greece back in 776 BC, and only citizens of this state took part in them.
In the history of modern international Olympiads since 1896, most medals in both summer and winter sports have been won by athletes from the USA - 2112. The USSR is in second place with 1234 awards, and Great Britain is in third place, with 665 medals. … In the same way, the places were distributed according to the number of awards of the highest dignity: the USA received 1,062 gold medals, the USSR - 697, Great Britain - 245. Russia collected 490 medals, of which 169 were gold. This is not such a bad result: as the Russian Federation, our country has been participating in the Olympic tournaments relatively recently.
At the last Olympic Games, held in London, the United States also led the unofficial ranking in terms of the number of awards received. American athletes have entered the top three 104 times, of which 46 times were the first. In second place in this ranking is China with 88 medals, of which 38 are gold. The third place went to Great Britain. Its athletes ascended the podium 65 times and 29 times took the highest step. The Russian team was in fourth place with 84 medals, of which 24 were gold.
It should be noted that after the collapse of the USSR, the number of awards of the Russian team won at the Olympics is gradually decreasing. This is due to the fact that athletes and coaches who were trained by the Soviet school are gradually leaving the big sport. And the new Russian sports school is still not strong enough.
In modern conditions, the Olympics is a competition not only for trained athletes, but also for manufacturers of sports equipment, sports infrastructure, and pharmaceutical support. For the successful performance of the national sports team, it is necessary that the country has enough demographic resources to select the most talented athletes. At the same time, the state must properly organize the preparatory work and invest a sufficient amount of funds in the development of sports. Based on this, forecasts are made that in the next 10 years, developing countries will squeeze out the current leaders of the Olympic competitions - Europe and the United States, where the demographic situation is gradually deteriorating, despite the favorable economic situation.
