There are 32 sports at the summer olympic games, with (if my calculations are correct) 283 gold medals attributed to the following categories (men's + women's combined) :
Aquatics (total = 46 medals)
- Swimming : 26 individual + 6 team relay medals
- Synchronised swimming : 4 medals (women only)
- Diving : 8 medals
- Water polo : 2 medals
Archery : 4
Athletics (total = 46 medals)
- track : 23 medals
- jumping : 8 medals
- throwing : 8 medals
- road : 7 medals
Badminton : 5 medals
Baseball : 1 medal
Basketball : 2 medals
Boxing : 11 medals (men only)
Canoeing : 16 medals
Cycling : 6 medals
Equestrian : 6 medals
Fencing : 6 medals
Football : 2 medals
Gymnastics : (total = 18 medals)
- Artistic : 14 medals
- Rhythmic : 2 medals (women only)
- Trampoline : 2 medals
Handball : 2 medals
Hockey : 2 medals
Judo : 14 medals
Modern Pentathlon : 2 medals
Rowing : 14 medals
Sailing : 11 medals
Shooting : 16 medals
Softball : 1 medal (women only)
Table Tennis : 4 medals
Taekwondo : 8 medals
Tennis : 4 medals
Triathlon : 2 medals
Volleyball : 2 medals
Weightlifting : 14 medals
Wrestling : 18 medals
Most difficult medals to get
The most pretigious medals considering the number for each sport, number of participants and number of matches would be the team sports with only 2 medals (men's and women's), so :
- baseball/softball, basketball, football, handball, hockey, volleyball.
Then come the individual or double sports with tournament style matches :
- tennis, table tennis, badminton
The following sports have more than 10 medals each :
- aquatics (46), athletics (46), gymnastics (18), wrestling (18), shooting (16), canoeing (16), rowing (14), judo (14), weightlifting (14) and sailing (11).
What country excels in what sports ?
Here are the results for the most popular sports at the Athens 2004 Olympics for the events which are complete.
Swimming
1) The US got 12 of the 32 (37,5%) swimming gold medals, and 28 out the 96 (29%) in total.
2) Australia got 7 (21,9%) gold and 15 (15,6%) in total.
3) Japan got 3 gold and 8 in total.
Shooting
China ends first for golds, with 4 medals out of 16, and 9 medals in total out of 42.
Russia comes 2nd for golds, with 3 medals, but ranks first in total with 10 medals.
Rowing
Romania get 3 gold and nothing else, then Germany comes with 2 gold and 2 silver, and the UK with 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.
Judo
Japan dominated, taking no less than 8 gold out of 14 (57%) and 2 silver. No other country managed to get more than 1 gold medal. China got 5 medals i total and Cuba 6 but no gold.
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