The United States is favourite to top the medal tally at the Olympic Games once again. The powerhouse of the quadrennial showpiece event is expected to take home 112 medals, including 39 Gold from the Paris Olympics, Nielsen’s Gracenot e Sports, a portal that supplies statistical analytics for sports leagues across the world, has predicted. China is expected to finish second on the medal table with 86 medals, including 34 gold medals. However, Gracenot’s forecast doesn’t rule out China topping USA in terms of the number of gold medals won.
India are not in the top 30 of Gracenote’s projection. While the International Olympic Committee does not rank countries based on medals, quite a few rank them based on the number of Gold medals won. Nielsen’s Gracenote projection has ranked the countries based on the total number of medals won.
USA won 113 medals to top the Tokyo Olympics, which was held after a year’s postponement in 2021 due to Covid-19. China finished second with 89 medals, including 38 Golds, one less than USA’s Gold medal count. The absence of the majority of Russian athletes due to the ban on them by the International Olympic Committee is going to impact the standings as traditionally Russian-dominated sports will see the rise of champions from other nations. Russia, which competed as the Russian Olympic Committee in 2021, won 71 medals, including 20 Gold medals after sending a contingent of over 300 athletes.
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The USA has topped the medal table (overall count) since the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona when the United team pipped the USA for the top spot. The United team consisted of athletes from the former Soviet Union just after it broke up as a sovereign state. China topped the Gold medal count in 2008 at home in Beijing.
“The United States team has medals projected in 28 different sports in the Virtual Medal Table, one sport fewer than the country’s own Olympic record of 29 which was set in Tokyo. Athletics and swimming are still the key to success though with just under half of US medals projected to be won in those two sports,” Gracenot’s prediction read.
BRITAN PROJECTED TO MAKE TOP 3
Britain is expected to return to the top three with another Games of 60-plus medals. Japan, which finished third with 27 Gold medals in Tokyo in 2021, is projected to take a hit, winning only 13 in Paris.
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“After its record-breaking Olympics in Tokyo, Japan is expected to fall short of that performance in Paris. Gracenote’s final Virtual Medal Table has the Japanese team winning 11 fewer medals than three years ago. The number of gold medals likely to be won by Japan is expected to be more than halved, from 27 to 13.”
Meanwhile, France, the host nation, is projected to nearly double its medal tally in 2023. It won 33 medals, including 10 Gold in Tokyo, and is predicted to win 60 in Paris.
“Summer Olympic success for France has been achieved in 15 to 19 different sports at each Olympics this century but medals are projected in 28 different sports in Paris. This would be a new French record. At the Paris 2024 Games, France is expected to have its best Olympic Games for 124 years, since winning 115 medals when hosting in 1900,” the report read.
NIELSON’S GRACENOTE MEDAL PREDICTION FOR PARIS OLYMPICS – TOP 10
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 39 | 32 | 41 | 112 |
| China | 34 | 27 | 25 | 86 |
| Great Britain | 17 | 20 | 26 | 63 |
| France | 27 | 21 | 12 | 60 |
| Australia | 15 | 23 | 16 | 54 |
| Japan | 13 | 13 | 21 | 47 |
| Italy | 11 | 19 | 16 | 46 |
| Germany | 11 | 12 | 12 | 35 |
| Netherlands | 16 | 10 | 8 | 34 |
| Republic of Korea | 9 | 4 | 13 | 26 |
A total of 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will compete at the Paris Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.