USA wins Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

The USA won its 7th consecutive women’s Basketball gold in Tokyo - pict.: Kareem Elgazzar USA TODAY Sports

The USA has won the (postponed) Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, taking top spot on the podium for the fourth consecutive edition of the summer games.

It was amazing that the Games were held at all amidst the continuing global pandemic, and even more amazing that they turned out to be such a high-level, entertaining edition. A huge round of applause must go to the organisers, the athletes and the national delegations for all their efforts, and for doing it all without spectators!
 
Despite the one-year delay, the Tokyo Games have been very much a full edition, awarding a total of 36,945 GNS points, shared out among 118 countries (119 in Rio).
 
For those less familiar with Greatest Sporting Nation, the uniqueness of our system is that the analysis goes well beyond the top three positions in each event in order to determine how countries perform. GSN awards points to the nations finishing in the first eight places in any event/tournament, and the results are weighted to reflect, among other factors, the type of competition (eg team vs individual sports) and the number of countries that take part in the premier tournament for the sport in question (the so-called Participation Multiplier). Please refer to our ‘How It Works’ page for more details.
 
This is why GSN results offer a more comprehensive insight into any sport tournament’s outcome than for example medal tables.
 
The USA’s victory in Tokyo was emphatic (with an 11.6% share of the points, second-placed Japan winning 6.2%) but a touch less so than in Rio 2016, when it had a 6.0 percentage-point advantage over runner-up China.
 
But the USA did handsomely win both the men’s and women’s rankings in Tokyo, ahead respectively of France and China. The Stars & Stripes topped the charts in Athletics, Swimming and Basketball, among other sports. The country’s sporting strength in depth was reflected by the fact that it notched up 230 top-8 places in the Games, up from 216 in Rio, while Japan, second overall, notched up 137, and third-placed China 162.
 
The table below shows the top 20 countries at the Tokyo Games, with the position change versus Rio 2016. Among top-10 countries, hosts Japan were the most improved, gaining eight places (conversely, Brazil lost five positions compared to the Rio edition). Italy and the Netherlands followed in Japan’s wake in terms of improvement, both gaining four places compared to Rio.
 
Germany was the disappointment among the top-10 countries, down five places from its Rio finish.
 
The two surprise names in the top-20 were Hungary in 15th place (nine better than Rio), and Belgium in 19th: 10 places better than Rio, the most improved country in the top-20, thanks also to victory in the men’s Hockey tournament.
 
TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS – THE TOP-20 TABLE
Place
Country
Points
Points %
pos. vs 2016
1
United States
4,281
11.6%
=
2
Japan
2,308
6.2%
8
3
China
2,284
6.2%
-1
4
France
2,117
5.7%
1
5
Australia
1,874
5.1%
3
6
Great Britain
1,688
4.6%
-2
7
Italy
1,397
3.8%
4
8
Germany
1,287
3.5%
-5
9
Netherlands
1,192
3.2%
4
10
Spain
1,117
3.0%
=
11
Canada
1,107
3.0%
1
12
Brazil
1,040
2.8%
-5
13
South Korea
866
2.3%
1
14
Sweden
787
2.1%
2
15
Hungary
660
1.8%
9
16
Serbia
557
1.5%
-1
17
New Zealand
508
1.4%
3
18
Ukraine
504
1.4%
7
19
Belgium
482
1.3%
10
20
Poland
477
1.3%
2
 
NB) Since the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is not a nation, and as per GSN policy since 2019, no points were awarded for any top-8 placement by ROC athletes/teams at the Tokyo Olympics.
Please also note that, at the time of publication, the tables on the GSN website did not yet reflect the results of the Tokyo Olympics.
 
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Greatest Sporting Nation is a ranking of countries based on their performance in top-level international tournaments in sports in which there is genuine global competition. Countries (national teams and/or individual athletes) score Qualifying Points by finishing in the top eight places in Qualifying Events.
These Qualifying Points are then weighted to produce GSN Points, based on a formula that takes into account individual vs team sports, the sport’s participation (number of countries) and the frequency (annual/biennial/quadrennial) of the tournaments.
The Country scoring the most Points in a calendar year wins the Global Cup for that year. The country that scores the most points relative to its population wins the Per Capita Cup. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the ‘How It Works’ section on the site.