It was a great achievement for Pakistan's star athlete, Arshad Nadeem, to win a gold medal in the javelin throw event at the Paris 2024 Olympics and a proud moment for the whole nation. Nadeem's monstrous, Olympic record-setting throw of 92.97m ended Pakistan's 32-year drought for an Olympic medal and was Pakistan's first-ever individual gold medal. This finally put Pakistan on the Paris 2024 medal table with a 1-0-0 (gold-silver-bronze) count. By comparison, the USA ended the same event at the top of the medals table with a 40-44-42 medal count for a total of 126 medals. Is the comparison of the 1 to 126 medals a fair way of assessing the achievements of the two countries? A deeper look at which sports/events are included in the Olympic games will be worthwhile.
In addition to a much bigger and much better-trained athlete contingent participating in several sports, there is one more factor that favours the US and a few other countries (China), which consistently occupy the top few spots in any Olympics medal table. It is the proliferation of multiple events of essentially the same sport.
To give an example, consider swimming. There are separate events for men and women. Then for each of the two gender groups, there are multiple events that are all essentially a variation of swimming skills, such as the 50m Freestyle, the 100m Freestyle, the 200m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly, 200m Butterfly, 200m individual Medley, 4x100m Freestyle Relay, 4x100 Medley and many more. In all, there are 35 swimming events between men and women, including a 4x100m Mixed Medley, creating an opportunity for any country to potentially win a whopping 91 medals in essentially one sport. They all require the same skills, such as a quick start, endurance, strength and technique, to be competitive.
A similar phenomenon, to a lesser extent, can be seen in other sports such as sprints/races (track and field), gymnastics, and even tennis, which has men's and women's individual and double events and a mixed double event as well. But swimming attracts the most attention due to its nearly three dozen Olympic events.
Many observers believe there is also an economic reason for the large number of swimming events. The Olympic pool complexes each host country must have are expensive to build. Thus, to finance these structures, there must be a certain number of paid spectators and thus a certain number of events to attract them. Olympic money also comes from television broadcast rights. More events mean longer broadcasts and more advertisement revenues.
Historically the US has dominated Olympic swimming due to its strong swimming programme at home, though this dominance has diminished somewhat in recent years due to the strong showings by other countries such as Australia, China and France. In the past, the US has aggressively lobbied for more swimming events which have increased from four events in 1896 to 35 in 2024 a whopping 775% increase. There is also speculation that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) favours more spotlight on swimming as many of its members are former swimmers.
Athletes who play team sports such as handball or football do not have the opportunity to compete in multiple events or potentially win more than one medal
Having multiple swimming events in the Olympics is an advantage for the US regarding medal count. The United States has historically been strong in swimming, and a higher number of events gives American swimmers more opportunities to compete and win medals. Success in swimming often contributes significantly to a country's overall medal count, and the US has consistently performed well in this sport. For example, in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the US swimmers won 30 of the potentially 91 medals or 33% in the swimming events. That contributed significantly to the US achieving the first overall position with a bloated medal count of 113.
Individually, many swimmers compete in more than one event as the skills required for them are essentially the same, with slight variations. This creates an opportunity for them to win multiple medals in one Olympics. In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, American swimmer Caeleb Dressel won seven medals, including five Gold (100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 200m Butterfly, 4x100m Medley Relay) and two Bronze (4x100m Medley Relay, 4x200m Freestyle Relay). Another American swimmer, Katie Ledecky won four medals - two Gold (800m Freestyle, 1500m Freestyle) and two Silver (200m Freestyle, 4x100m Medley Relay).
In the Paris 2024 Olympics, the US raked in 28 of the potentially 91 medals in the swimming events. Thanks to this big haul, the US once again finished at the top of the medal table. At the individual level, French swimmer Leon Marchand won five medals – four gold in individual events and a bronze in the 4x100 Medley. Marchand was followed by Ledecky, who won four medals – two gold in 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle, a silver in 4x200m freestyle and a bronze in 400m freestyle. There is no doubt that these athletes have worked hard in their training to achieve top spots in their sport; however, being able to use their talent in multiple events greatly increases their chances of winning more medals.
In contrast, athletes who play team sports such as handball or football do not have the opportunity to compete in multiple events or potentially win more than one medal. Despite being excellent in their sport, their contribution to their country's overall medal count is limited to adding at most one medal.
Multiple events of the same sport may explain why some countries are always at or near the top of the overall medal table. This gives a false impression about the lower medal count of countries who mostly participate in single-event sports, thus significantly limiting their chances of winning more medals.
Cricket will be added to the next Olympics, which are expected to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. Despite extensive preparation and training in various aspects of the sport, such as batting, bowling, and fielding, and doing well in several matches before reaching the medal round, each team will have the opportunity to win, at most, only one medal in the competition.