The 2024 Summer Olympic Games provided spectacle, drama, and passion. We all seem to pay attention to the Medals Table, which provide one way to rank the different countries. But there are many different ways to look at the results and extract meaningful information. I took a deep dive into the data, and came up with different ways to rank countries. Can you guess how countries stacked up based on different criteria?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not list "countries" but National Olympic Committees (NOC). As such, every independent or semi-independent entity recognized by the IOC can enter athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games. For the purpose of this quiz, "country" should be interpreted as a sovereign nation, a territory, or an independent region that is recognized by the IOC, regardless of that entity's status as a "country."
For the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, Russia and Belarus were banned from participating. Athletes from those countries were still allowed to participate, but could not officially represent their country, and competed as "Individual Neutral Athletes."
Athletes who held official refugee status were allowed to compete as part of the "Refugee Olympic Team."
All data was personally researched and analyzed by me, as obtained from the official 2024 Paris Olympics results website. I looked at all individual 329 events that awarded medals, recorded which "countries" participated to each event, and recorded the medal winners. I can provide the data if desired, and if anyone would like to double-check my numbers they are more than welcome to do so.