Paris Olympics 2024: Top 10 countries with the most Olympic medals—how many does India have?

Interestingly, this marked the third occasion that the French capital has been chosen to host the Summer Games, with its previous occurrences in 1900 and 1924, making it exactly a century since the 1924 Paris Olympics.

This year’s 2024 Paris Olympics had an equal representation of male and female athletes, as well as an equal number of events for all participants, featuring 3,800 hours of live sports coverage, with approximately 10,600 athletes from 206 nations competing across 32 sports. A total of 329 gold medals were awarded during the 18-day Olympics.

Notably, in more than half of the Olympic Games, the U.S. has claimed the most medals out of any country, with its most celebrated swimmer Michael Phelps, one of the most-decorated Olympians of all time, with 28 medals, out of which 23 of them are gold.

Followed by the US, the Soviet Union, which existed between 1922 and 1991, is the second most to win more Olympic medals (after the United States), despite competing in just 18 Olympics beginning in the 1950s, the country had the most medals in 13 of these games

However, as the Soviet Union no longer exists, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), “the Olympic medals won by an athlete or team are assigned to the country that the athlete or team represented at the time of the Olympic Games.”

Interestingly, even with its absence for the next 30 years, as it first competed in the Olympics in the 1950s, China is ranked fifth in the world by Olympic medal count, excelling in gymnastics, diving, and badminton.

On the other hand, countries like Bhutan, Maldives, and Bangladesh, few among the 70 countries estimated, haven’t won a single medal in the history of the Olympics, to date.

Top 10 countries with the most medals in the history of the Summer Olympics:

It’s noteworthy to mention that in the 2024 Paris Olympics, the USA continued to dominate, winning the highest number of gold medals. Surprisingly, it tied with China, a first in the history of the Summer Games.

Here are the top 10 countries that secured the most Olympic medals in Paris Olympics 2024:

Source: IOC

Here are the top 10 countries with the most Summer Olympic medals, to date.

Source: Wikipedia

How many medals did India win in the Olympics?

India’s first participation in the Olympics was in the 1900 Games in Paris, skipping the 1896, 1904, 1908, and 1912 Summer Olympics. It was Norman Pritchard, who made history as the first Indian to win a medal in the men’s 200m hurdles.

Pritchard set a then Olympic record of 26 seconds in the finals securing a silver medal, following USA’s Alvin Kraenzlein, who ran a new Olympic record of 25.4 seconds to win the gold.

In the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, India secured six medals – 5 bronze and a silver, making the total count reach  41 Olympic medals to date.

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Men’s javelin silver medalist, Neeraj Chopra, of India, stands on the podium at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP | PTI)

It’s significant to note that India has won 10 gold medals at the Olympics, with the Indian men’s hockey team securing 8 of the 10 gold medals. Neeraj Chopra‘s historic gold medal in the men’s javelin throw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was a monumental moment for India.

Chorpa became the first athlete to win gold and only the second Indian individual to achieve Olympic gold after Abhinav Bindra. Even Indian Badminton player PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win multiple Olympic medals.

While India’s overall medal count may not be among the highest, with India ranking 57th in the all-time table, each medal holds immense value for the country.

Rank	Country	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal	Total
57	India	10	10	21	41

Please note: India has not won a single medal in the Winter Olympics, and the medals mentioned above are secured in the Summer Olympics. 

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A complete list of all Indian Olympic Medal Winners, in the Paris Olympics 2024:

Athlete	Event	Medal
Neeraj Chopra	Men’s javelin throw	Silver
Manu Bhaker	Women’s 10m air pistol	Bronze
Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh	Mixed team 10m air pistol	Bronze
Swapnil Kusale	Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions	Bronze
India men’s hockey team	Men’s hockey	Bronze
Aman Sehrawat	Men’s freestyle 57 Kg wrestling	Bronze

A complete list of all Indian Olympic Medal Winners, till Tokyo Olympics 2020:

No.	Athlete Name	Medal	Event	Olympics
1	Neeraj Chopra	Gold	Men’s javelin throw	Tokyo 2020
2	Bajrang Punia	Bronze	Men’s 65kg wrestling	Tokyo 2020
3	Indian hockey team	Bronze	Men’s hockey	Tokyo 2020
4	Ravi Kumar Dahiya	Silver	Men’s 57kg wrestling	Tokyo 2020
5	PV Sindhu	Bronze	Women’s singles badminton	Tokyo 2020
6	Lovlina Borgohain	Bronze	Women’s welterweight boxing	Tokyo 2020
7	Mirabai Chanu	Silver	Women’s 49kg weightlifting	Tokyo 2020
8	Sakshi Malik	Bronze	Women’s 58kg wrestling	Rio 2016
9	PV Sindhu	Silver	Women’s singles badminton	Rio 2016
10	Gagan Narang	Bronze	Men’s 10m air rifle shooting	London 2012
11	Yogeshwar Dutt	Bronze	Men’s 60kg wrestling	London 2012
12	Mary Kom	Bronze	Women’s flyweight boxing	London 2012
13	Saina Nehwal	Bronze	Women’s singles badminton	London 2012
14	Vijay Kumar	Silver	Men’s 25m rapid pistol shooting	London 2012
15	Sushil Kumar	Silver	Men’s 66kg wrestling	London 2012
16	Sushil Kumar	Bronze	Men’s 66kg wrestling	Beijing 2008
17	Vijender Singh	Bronze	Men’s middleweight boxing	Beijing 2008
18	Abhinav Bindra	Gold	Men’s 10m air rifle shooting	Beijing 2008
19	Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	Silver	Men’s double trap shooting	Athens 2004
20	Karnam Malleswari	Bronze	Women’s 54kg weightlifting	Sydney 2000
21	Leander Paes	Bronze	Men’s singles tennis	Atlanta 1996
22	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Moscow 1980
23	Indian hockey team	Bronze	Men’s hockey	Munich 1972
24	Indian hockey team	Bronze	Men’s hockey	Mexico City 1968
25	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Tokyo 1964
26	Indian hockey team	Silver	Men’s hockey	Rome 1960
27	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Melbourne 1956
28	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Helsinki 1952
29	KD Jadhav	Bronze	Men’s bantamweight wrestling	Helsinki 1952
30	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	London 1948
31	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Berlin 1936
32	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Los Angeles 1932
33	Indian hockey team	Gold	Men’s hockey	Amsterdam 1928
34	Norman Pritchard	Silver	Men’s 200m	Paris 1900
35	Norman Pritchard	Silver	Men’s 200m hurdles	Paris 1900

Source: Olympics.com

Looking forward, 117 athletes from India will compete in 16 sports at the Paris 2024 Olympics. They’ll be competing for 95 medals across 69 events, aiming to add more ahead of the Summer Olympics 2024 in Paris.