1896 Summer Olympics medal count

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A silver medal was awarded to the winner of each event, during the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
A silver medal was awarded to the winner of each event, during the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

The 1896 Summer Olympics medal count is a list of National Olympic Committees ranked by the number of medals won during the 1896 Summer Olympics—the first Olympic Games of the Modern era—held in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. A total of 241 athletes from fourteen nations participated in 43 events in nine sports at these games.[1]

Ten of the fourteen participating nations earned medals, in addition to three medals won by mixed teams, i.e. teams made up of athletes from multiple nations. The United States won the most gold medals (11), while host nation Greece won the most medals overall (46) as well as the most silver (17) and bronze (19) medals, finishing with one less gold medal than the United States.[2]

During these inaugural Olympics, winners were given a silver medal and an olive branch, while runner-ups received a bronze medal and a laurel branch.[3] The IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver and bronze medals to the three best placed athletes in each event to comport with more recent traditions.[2] Three ties resulted in medals being shared between athletes, increasing the medal count of various nations. These include ties between Francis Lane of the United States and Alojz Sokol of Hungary, for the third place in the 100 metres; between Evangelos Damaskos and Ioannis Theodoropoulos of Greece in the pole vault; and between Konstantinos Paspatis of Greece and Momcsilló Tapavicza of Hungary, in singles tennis. In addition, bronze medals were not awarded in a number of events where there was no third place finisher.[3][4]

[edit] Mixed team

In the early Olympic Games, several team events were contested by athletes from multiple nations.[5] Retroactively, the IOC created the designation "Mixed team" (with the country code ZZX) to refer to these group of athletes. Some athletes won medals both individually and as part of a mixed team, so these medals are tabulated under different nations in the official counts. Dionysios Kasdaglis, an athlete of Greek origins living in Alexandria, Egypt, is listed by the IOC as Greek during his competition in the singles tennis competition but Kasdaglis and his doubles tennis teammate, Greek athlete Demetrios Petrokokkinos, are listed a mixed team.[2]

[edit] Medal count

James Connolly of the United States became the first Olympic champion of the Modern Era, by winning the triple jump event at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
James Connolly of the United States became the first Olympic champion of the Modern Era, by winning the triple jump event at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

This is the full table of the medal count of the 1896 Summer Olympics, based on the medal count of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[a] These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a country. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This follows the system used by the IOC.[2]

The host country, Greece, is highlighted in lavender. The greatest number of medals in each category (gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals, and total medals) is highlighted in boldface.

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States United States (USA) 11 7 2 20
2 Greece Greece (GRE) 10 17 19 46
3 Germany Germany (GER) 6 5 2 13
4 France France (FRA) 5 4 2 11
5 Great Britain Great Britain (GBR) 2 3 2 7
6 Hungary Hungary (HUN) 2 1 3 6
7 Austria Austria (AUT) 2 1 2 5
8 Australia Australia (AUS) 2 0 0 2
9 Denmark Denmark (DEN) 1 2 3 6
10 Switzerland Switzerland (SUI) 1 2 0 3
11 Mixed team Mixed team (ZZX) 1 1 1 3
Total 43 43 36 122

[edit] Notes and references

Notes

a  There are sources, besides the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that display variations in the medal totals, but as the governing body of the Olympic Games, the IOC is considered the most authoritative source for the purposes of this article.

References
  1. ^ Athens 1896–Games of the I Olympiad. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  2. ^ a b c d Athens 1896–Medal Table. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  3. ^ a b De Coubertin, Pierre; Timoleon J. Philemon, N.G. Politis and Charalambos Anninos (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck, pp. 232–4. 
  4. ^ Olympic Medal Winners. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  5. ^ 1896 - Summer Olympics I (Athens, Greece). TSN. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.