Countries with the Most Summer Olympics Medals

Greece has a population of 10 million. That's half the Netherlands, one sixth of Italy, and one eighth of Germany. It's very difficult that they can enter any non-historical ranking.

It could also be a good argument to actually see why it does make a lot sense!:)) Finns and Swedes have fiercely fought in track and field events almost for a hundred years, especially every year in "Finnkampen" or "Maaottelu". Sports in all forms is an important part of the competitive spirit of these peoples. In Norway, too, which is best in winter.

But did having a small population prevent them from winning medals? Or are you saying that Swedish athletes are 1,000 times more talented and hard working than Chinese athletes? (as per capita figures would suggest)

There must a myriad of reasons why small countries concentrate and excel in their "own" sports (e.g. Netherlands in skating or Austria in slalom). - Conditions offered by nature, sports traditions, and motivation to win must be among the reasons. USA (like China for sure in the future) is great in hundreds of various sports, but small nations may be good in just one or two. And where they are good, there they bring olympic medals back home..

yes. sure. And that obviously goes a long way for the Norwegians. Athletic tradition, competitive spirit, natural talent, genetics, the natural environment available to practice in, economic development (giving more resources to commit toward athletic development), and internal politics all play a big role in the equation of how many medals a country earns. But population? When you start trying to figure that way you get some really crazy results that don't make sense. I think it's only really a factor with micro nations like Liechtenstein where there simply aren't enough people to draw upon to field an Olympic team. Otherwise it's an insignificant factor. (and, at the same time, if Vatican City were to win one gold medal in synchronized swimming that doesn't immediately mean that they have a stronger sporting tradition than China or the US or Germany. Measuring per capita it would seem that way. But it should just be regarded as a fluke.)

What you say is true. Good arguments. You may have seen my quiz: "Top 15 Gold Medal Countries in Summer Olympics & World Map". Grenada is the 8th best country in per capita ranking. The relative rankings really do not give justice to the biggest countries, but it is also fair to try somehow see how small nations do. My quiz includes both ways of ranking.

Ok, now I really want to see Pope Francis put on a swimsuit and swim along to "Ave Maria."

I can say with a high degree of certainty that population is at least as important as genetics and "natural talent" in determining which countries are most likely to win Olympic medals. If you don't like doing it per capita you can always try dividing by the square root of the number of people in the country, or using some other function. But saying population isn't a factor borders on laughable.

I can say with a higher degree of certainty that it's absolutely not and, more important than my level of certainty, the data backs up my opinion and places it beyond dispute. Saying that population is a factor borders on laughable. Just look at the data. It's not ambiguous. It's not a factor.

Nevermind you're right. Population is a much more important factor than genetics. That's why there are so many more champion marathon runners from Indonesia than from Kenya. Okay. Case closed.

Because East Germany and West Germany were two different countries that fielded separate teams that competed in the same Olympics. No other country gets to go to the Olympics with two different teams. And the USSR, while colloquially seen as synonymous with Russia, was really a collection of many different states so awarding their medals to Russia would be unfair to Ukraine, Belarus, etc.

Yes, the reunification is more like one country dissolving and states being added to another country

Yet all the countries had been added to the Russian Empire in the first place. The USSR was nothing more than a continuation of the Russian Empire with a new boss in the chair.