There are two generally accepted ways of handling a medal count: Gold-focused, as the IOC uses or a total medal count that relies on whoever has the most total medals. Right now the USA is in the lead either way, but it’s also sparked the imagination of different ways to evaluate Olympic success considering the wildly different conditions of countries around the world.
Last week we took a dive into the per capita medal count, which showed the most-talented nation based on how many citizens it took to win a single medal. Today we’re going a different way and looking at the Paris Olympic medal count based on gross domestic product (GDP).
It goes without saying that money plays a huge role in sporting success. From physically sending athletes, to having well-funded training — it’s critical to have at least some money behind you in order to win in the Olympics. Now, there are some flaws to using a pure GDP analysis, because we don’t exactly know the sporting budgets of each nation, but at the very least it can show us who is the best sporting country with the least resources to their name.
For the purposes of this count we’re only including countries with 10 medals or more.
2024 Olympic medal count based on GDP
| Rank | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | GDP | USD per medal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | GDP | USD per medal |
| 1 | New Zealand | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 248.0B | 20,666,666,666 |
| 2 | Australia | 18 | 14 | 11 | 43 | 1.63T | 37,906,976,744 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 10 | 5 | 6 | 21 | 1.00T | 47,619,047,619 |
| 4 | France | 13 | 17 | 21 | 51 | 2.78T | 54,509,803,921 |
| 5 | South Korea | 2 | 8 | 7 | 27 | 1.67T | 61,851,851,851 |
| 6 | Great Britain | 12 | 17 | 20 | 49 | 3.09T | 63,061,224,489 |
| 7 | Italy | 9 | 10 | 7 | 26 | 2.05T | 78,846,153,846 |
| 8 | Spain | 2 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 1.42T | 109,230,769,231 |
| 9 | Canada | 6 | 4 | 9 | 19 | 2.14T | 112,631,578,947 |
| 10 | Japan | 12 | 7 | 13 | 32 | 4.23T | 132,187,005,000 |
| 11 | Brazil | 2 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 1.92T | 137,142,857,143 |
| 12 | Germany | 9 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 4.08T | 204,000,000,000 |
| 13 | USA | 27 | 35 | 33 | 95 | 25.44T | 267,789,473,684 |
| 14 | China | 26 | 24 | 17 | 67 | 17.96T | 268,059,701,493 |
If we took this beyond nations with 10 medals there are a few standouts worth a mention.
- Greece: Seven medals with $217.6B GDP for $3.1B per medal
- Cape Verde: One medal with $2.22B GDP for $2.22B per medal
- St. Lucia: Two medals with $2.34B GDP for $1.17B per medal
- India: Three medals with $3.42T GDP for $1.14T per medal
