Denmark among leading per capita medal winners in Rio

Danes ranks seventh, trailing the likes of Grenada, New Zealand and Jamaica

The US may be nearing medal number 100, while China and the UK have both reached the half-century mark. But they still trail Denmark by a long way. At least in the medals per capita rankings (as of yesterday evening).

Denmark has only won nine medals so far, but with a population of just 5.6 million people – if it were a city if wouldn’t even make the top 10 in China – the Danes are currently seventh in the overall medals per capita table.

Two small Caribbean island nations, Grenada and Bahamas, are first and second despite having won just one medal a piece, followed by New Zealand (10 medals), Slovenia (4) and Jamaica (5).

Georgia (6), Denmark (9), Bahrain (2), Armenia (4) and Hungary (13) complete the top 10, while other notables include Australia (in 14th with 24 medals), the UK (17 with 50), Sweden (19 with 7), Norway (25 with 3), France (28 with 31), Canada (32 with 14), Germany (36 with 28), Russia (38 with 41), the US (42 with 86) and China (71 with 52).

READ MORE: Stealing a march on the Swedes as Scandinavia’s top Summer Olympic nation

Going up?
At the bottom are Indonesia, which has won three medals from its massive population of over 255 million, the Philippines, with a single medal to go with its population of over 100 million, and in last place India, which won its first medal yesterday for its whopping 1.3 billion plus citizens.

Still it’s better than Mexico, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are among the world’s 11 most populated countries and have yet to win a medal in Rio yet.

And what about the nations that have never won an Olympic medal. Fiji and Kosovo broke their ducks in Rio this time around, but there are still 63 nations still waiting to make history (see below).

Denmark could be making a move up the ladder later today. Having already guaranteed its tenth medal in the women’s badminton doubles final today, there are a number of other medal possibilities today for the Danes in sailing and athletics.

See the entire list here (in English).




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