Yesterday, Sweden won its first medal at the Paris Olympics – a bronze in Judo.
For a relatively small country, Sweden often does quite well at the Olympics. In the 2020 Tokyo games, 9 medals were won. The most medals Sweden has ever won was in 1912 in Stockholm and 1920 in Antwerp where the athletes won a staggering 64 medals, each time. In London in 1944, a neat 44 medals were won.
Sweden is one of the 14 original countries to participate in the modern Olympics since its beginning in 1896, and has participated every time since then. The one exception is 1904 in St Louis.
The most successful Swedish summer Olympian of all time is Gert Fredriksson, a canoeist who has won 6 gold medals. In the world, the most gold medals have gone to swimmer Michael Phelps who has won a staggering 23 golds! The next best are Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and Americans Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, each with 9 gold medals.
From a historical country perspective, the USA has the most gold medals: a total of 1,179, according to the Olympic Foundation. Following is the now-disbanded Soviet Union, with 473 gold medals. Germany takes third, with 342 gold medals.
Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Sweden and Norway have all won more than 200 gold medals apiece, according to the Olympic Foundation.
This year in Paris, Sweden is realistically hoping to bring home 12 medals, in disciplines such as pole vault, discus, swimming, dressage, volleyball, handball, and sailing.
The judo bronze was unexpected – so let’s see what other surprises Paris might bring.
Watching the Swedes 