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≡ 2026 GAMES TEAM SCORING ≡
The Olympic Games draw competitors from across the globe, but only a very few win medals. A few more finish in the top eight in their events and earn a diploma from the International Olympic Committee.
While the medal table is the most-often used metric of “team” success, it’s wholly inefficient to measure achievement at any Games. So, The Sports Examiner uses the familiar 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system used in NCAA track & field scoring and by some International Federations, such as World Aquatics.
For the Milan Cortina Winter Games, The Sports Examiner tracked the top-eight placers. While there were 92 National Olympic Committees, there were 38 that scored points from places 1-8 (scores shown with the number of place winners in parenthesis after):
● 493.5: Norway (87) ~ 41 medals
● 449: United States (92) ~ 33 medals
● 385.5: Italy (78) ~ 30 medals
● 338: Germany (68) ~ 26 medals
● 314.5: France (64) ~ 23 medals
● 284: Switzerland (56) ~ 23 medals
● 282: Canada (62) ~ 21 medals
● 249.5: Austria (58) ~ 18 medals
● 248.5: Japan (48) ~ 24 medals
● 237: Netherlands (39) ~ 20 medals
/10/
● 211: China (49) ~ 15 medals
● 199: Sweden (32) ~ 18 medals
● 113: South Korea (23) ~ 10 medals
● 93: Great Britain (18) ~ 5 medals
● 87: Finland (22) ~ 6 medals
● 85: Australia (18) ~ 6 medals
● 73: Czech Rep. (18) ~ 5 medals
● 58: Poland (16) ~ 4 medals
● 47: Slovenia (8) ~ 4 medals
● 38: Latvia (8) ~ 2 medals
/20/
● 34.5: New Zealand (11) ~ 3 medals
● 29: Spain (5) ~ 3 medals
● 27: Belgium (8) ~ 1 medal
● 23: Russia “neutrals” (5) ~ 1 medal
● 22: Kazakhstan (8) ~ 1 medal
● 19: Bulgaria (4) ~ 2 medals
● 15: Estonia (4) ~ 1 medal
● 13: Georgia (2) ~ 1 medal
● 10: Brazil (1) ~ 1 medal
● 10: Denmark (2) ~ 1 medal
/30/
● 9: Ukraine (4)
● 8: Hungary (3)
● 5: Slovakia (1)
● 4: Belarus “neutrals” (2)
● 4: Romania (1)
● 2: Hong Kong (1)
● 2: Lithuania (1)
● 1: Ireland (1)
/38/
It’s worth noting that 29 National Olympic Committees and a Russian “neutral” won medals at the Games, compared to 38 who scored points, a very close match.
Still, the International Olympic Committee will be pleased with a small expansion of the number of teams that scored points: 38, up from 35 for Beijing in 2022, and 35 in PyeongChang in 2018.
The U.S. improvement was shown quite clearly when comparing these three Games:
● 2018: 23 medals ~ 357.5 points ~ 79 place-winners (1-8)
● 2022: 25 medals ~ 369.0 points ~ 82 place-winners
● 2025: 33 medals ~ 449.0 points ~ 92 place-winners
This is real improvement, with the caveat that the absence of the Russians in Milan Cortina certainly influenced some of the scoring totals in 2026.
The IOC is currently considering what to do about the Winter Games program and whether to include historically winter sports – such as cross country running and cyclo-cross – in addition to the current rule which limits Winter Games sports to those on snow and ice.
Given the very slow growth in NOC scoring – 35 in 2018 and 2022 and 38 in 2026 – it might be time to give other sports a try.
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