Countries winning medals in just a single sport

The best performing countries, such as the US, the major European nations and, in recent decades, China, earn medals in a large variety of sports. Other countries, however are very dependent on a single sport to earn their medals.

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Hanni Wenzel is the most successful Olympic athlete from Liechtenstein.

In all, 41 nations have only won medals in a single sport. In 27 of these cases, this is not a very interesting finding, as these are countries which have only ever won a single Olympic medal. Looking at the remaining 14 nations with at least two medals, Ethiopia clearly stands out. The nation’s long distance runners have racked up a total of 45 Olympic medals. Apart from the track, Ethiopia’s best Olympic result is a quarter-final spot (=5th place) for boxer Chanyalew Haile in 1972. Second in line, with 9 medals, is Liechtenstein, which has won all of its medals in alpine skiing. The tiny Alpine nation is also the only country to have only medaled in the Winter Olympics.

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Frankie Fredericks has won all four of Namibia’s Olympic medals.

The rest of the nations in the list have largely depended on a single athlete to win their medals. For example, Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks won four silver medals in the 1990s.

[table]

Country, Sport,Medals

Ethiopia, Athletics, 45
Liechtenstein, Alpine Skiing, 9
Costa Rica, Swimming, 4
Namibia, Athletics, 4
Independent Olympic Athletes, Shooting, 3
Panama, Athletics, 3
Afghanistan, Taekwondo, 2
Ecuador, Athletics, 2
Kuwait, Shooting, 2
Mozambique, Athletics, 2
Sri Lanka, Athletics, 2
Suriname, Swimming, 2
Tanzania, Athletics, 2
West Indies Federation, Athletics, 2

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If we expand our view slightly, we could look at the percentage of medals won by a nation in a single sport. Ignoring the 41 nations already mentioned, we get two more track and field giants at the top. Sprint island Jamaica has only ever won a single medal outside athletics, by David Weller in track cycling. Kenya, a long distance running nation like Ethiopia, has won seven medals in boxing.

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One of Kenya’s first long distance stars was Kipchoge Keino.

The only nations that have won more than 100 medals which owe more than a third of their medals to a single sport are Australia, which has earned 37.6% of their medals in the swimming pool, and Austria, which collected 114 medals (35.2%) in alpine skiing.

[table]

Country, Sport, Medals, Total medals, %

Jamaica, Athletics, 66, 67, 98.5%
Kenya, Athletics, 79, 86, 91.9%
Zimbabwe, Swimming, 7, 8, 87.5%
Morocco, Athletics, 19, 22, 86.4%
Bahamas, Athletics, 10, 12, 83.3%
Malaysia, Badminton, 5, 6, 83.3%
Pakistan, Hockey, 8, 10, 80.0%
Trinidad & Tobago, Athletics, 14, 18, 77.8%
Ghana, Boxing, 3, 4, 75.0%
Lebanon, Wrestling, 3, 4, 75.0%
Peru, Shooting, 3, 4, 75.0%
Puerto Rico, Boxing, 6, 8, 75.0%
Singapore, Table Tennis, 3, 4, 75.0%

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All but one of Zimbabwe’s medals have been won by swimmer Kirsty Coventry.

2 thoughts on “Countries winning medals in just a single sport”

  1. which are the most successful countries by wins versus events participated in? i.e. winning percentage by opportunities?

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