Top summer Olympics medal-winning nations

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1896, with the tradition of gold, silver and bronze medals introduced at the 1904 Games

Year Host          1st place   2nd place   3rd place

1896 Athens, GRE USA 11 7 2    GRE 10 17 19 GER 6 5 2
 
1900 Paris, FRA FRA 26 41 34   USA 19 14 14 GBR 15 6 9
 
1904 St. Louis, USA USA 78 82 79 GER 4 4 5  CUB 4 2 3

1908 London, GBR GBR 56 51 39   USA 23 12 12 SWE 8 6 11

1912 Stockholm, SWE USA 25 19 19 SWE 24 24 17 GBR 10 15 16

1920 Antwerp, BEL USA 41 27 27   SWE 19 20 25 GBR 15 15 13

1924 Paris, FRA USA 45 27 27     FIN 14 13 10 FRA 13 15 10

1928 Amsterdam, NED USA 22 18 16 GER 10 7 14  FIN 8 8 9

1932 Los Angeles, USA 41 32 30   ITA 12 12 12 FRA 10 5 4

1936 Berlin, GER GER 33 26 30    USA 24 20 12 HUN 10 1 5 

1948 London, GBR USA 38 27 19    SWE 16 11 17 FRA 10 6 13

1952 Helsinki, FIN USA 40 19 17  URS* 22 30 19 HUN 16 10 16

1956 Melbourne, AUS URS 37 29 32 USA 32 25 17  AUS 13 8 14

1960 Rome, ITA URS 43 29 31      USA 34 21 16  ITA 13 10 13

1964 Tokyo, JPN USA 36 26 28     URS 30 31 35  JPN 16 5 8

1968 Mexico City, MEX USA 45 28 34 URS 29 32 30 JPN 11 7 7

1972 Munich, FRG ‡ URS 50 27 22   USA 33 31 30  GDR 20 23 23

1976 Montreal, CAN URS 49 41 35   GDR 40 25 25  USA 34 34 25

1980 Moscow, URS * URS 80 69 48   GDR 47 37 42  BUL 8 16 17

1984 Los Angeles, USA USA 83 61 30 ROU 20 16 17 FRG 17 19 23

1988 Seoul, KOR URS 55 31 46       GDR 37 35 30 USA 36 31 27

1992 Barcelona, ESP EUN 45 38 29   USA 37 34 37 GER 33 21 28

1996 Atlanta, USA USA 44 32 25     RUS 26 21 16 GER 20 18 27

2000 Sydney, AUS USA 37 24 32      RUS 32 28 29 CHN 28 16 14

2004 Athens, GRE USA 36 39 26      CHN 32 17 14 RUS 28 26 36

2008 Beijing, CHN 51 21 28         USA 38 38 36 RUS 23 21 29

2012 London, GBR USA 46 28 29      CHN 38 29 21 GBR 29 17 19

Notes: No gold medals awarded in 1896 and 1900 – only silver for first place and bronze for second. IOC retroactively assigned gold, silver, and bronze positions to bring them in line with current awards. Olympics not held in 1916, 1940, 1944. USA boycotted 1980 Olympics, URS boycotted 1984 Olympics. URS* – Soviet Union, GDR† – East Germany, FRG‡ – West Germany, EUN§ – Unified Team (12 of 15 former Soviet republics)

Sources: IOC, Wikipedia, wire agencies

Picture: Getty Images