That's tons of time. I must've typed in every European country except the Vatican and a good portion of the Asian ones as well as South America. And I still had 45 seconds left after I got them all.
Gymnastics has always been very popular in Switzerland, especially in the first half of the 20th century (when almost all the medals were won). There is 450'000 members of the Swiss Gymnastics Federation (out of 8 mio Swiss people!), much more than football or skiing. Until the late 60s, it was a very patriotic activity and closely related to the Swiss Army.
All of Yugoslav medallists were actually Slovene, except 1/8 of the team bronze. And all Olympic medals of the first Yugoslavia (Kingdom) were in gymnastics.
This quiz is a case study on why reading the instructions is a good idea. I missed the clue that many of the countries no longer exist; consequently, I kept trying nations like Czech Republic and Slovakia. Taking a moment to think, I finally concluded the Soviet Union must top the list, but it was too late to help me with East Germany and the rest. Dummy.
A pity you didn't choose to keep wikipedia's much more natural order of the ranking, sorting it first by number of gold medals, then silver, then bronze.
For instance, Sweden's five golds are a much greater success than South Korea's lesser eleven medals.
@rocamorar: Actually, 9 "lesser" medals, since two of South Korea's 11 are gold. Anyway, considering this quiz is about most olympic medals and not just gold medals, I think the ranking is fine as is.
Feeling pretty dumb right now. I read the hint about many answers being countries that no longer exist, and I got Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, but it never even occurred to me that the Soviet Union would be counted separately from Russia. And here I was wracking my brain trying to think of who could possibly have gotten that many more medals over everyone else.
When combined, the USSR+Russia tally is more than twice as much as the next highest country (US)! To be fair, some of the USSR medalists were from states that are now separate countries, but I think it still illustrates how dominant Russia and close countries were (and to a lesser extent still are) in gymnastics.
It would be fascinating to break down (I wish I had the time or attention span) how many of the medalists from the USSR were from states outside of what is currently Russia, such as Uzbekistan or Ukraine.
I mean... sure, but the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic were entities within the USSR. That's the reason why Ukraine and Belarus are considered to have joined the UN in 1945 despite not existing as countries...
It would be fascinating to break down (I wish I had the time or attention span) how many of the medalists from the USSR were from states outside of what is currently Russia, such as Uzbekistan or Ukraine.
Really interesting quiz. I must say it was a bit confusing to have Russia separate from the Soviet Union while West Germany is lumped together with unified Germany - I didn't even think of typing "Russia" after I'd seen that.
For instance, Sweden's five golds are a much greater success than South Korea's lesser eleven medals.
It's amazing how powerful Romania, Czechoslovakia, and the GDR were in sports