Great Britain (GBR)

Great Britain is the only nation that has never failed to be represented at the Olympic Games, including all the usual exceptions. It competed at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, the 1908 figure skating events in London, the 1920 figure skating events in Antwerp, and at the 1956 Equestrian Olympics in Stockholm. Through 1920, Great Britain competed as a combined team with Ireland, which was still not an independent nation, and its 1904 participation is in fact due only to three Irish athletes. The British Olympic Association was formed and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1905. Through 2022, Great Britain has won a total of 954 Olympic medals, 300 of them gold. Their best participation by far happened at the 1908 Olympic Games, in their home soil, with a total of 146 medals and 56 gold (more than double their second best participation).

Jason Kenny leads the medal list, with seven golds and two silvers in track cycling events from 2008-2020. He is followed by cyclist Bradley Wiggins, with eight medals (five gold). Although with less medals (total of 7), cyclist Chris Hoy beats Wiggins in number of golds, with 6 gold medals. Laura Trott-Kenny, Jason Kenny’s wife, is also a track cyclist and Great Britain’s best female Olympian, with 5 gold and 1 silver. The nation’s best non-cyclist Olympian is rower Steven Redgrave, with five golds and one bronze.

Great Britain has won 34 medals and 12 gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games (or 41 and 13, if you include 1908 and 1920 figure skating, technically contested at the Summer Olympics). Their best sport has been figure skating, at which they have won 15 medals with five gold medals. But, more recently, they have also been dominant in skeleton, winning nine medals and three gold, and curling, with six medals and three golds. Its best Winter Olympic performances both came in 2014 and 2018, with five medals and one gold at both Sochi and PyeongChang.

Lizzy Yarnold has uniquely won two gold medals for Britain, in skeleton sliding in 2014 and 2018. Four other British Winter Olympians have won two medals, three with a gold and bronze in figure skating: Jeannette Altwegg in 1948 and 1952, and the sublime dance couple of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1984 and 1994. Eve Muirhead joined this top in 2022, winning gold in the curling tournament, after winning bronze in the same event in 2014.

Great Britain has hosted the Olympic Games three times, the Games of the IVth Olympiad in London in 1908, the Games of the XIVth Olympiad in London in 1948, and the Games of the XXXth Olympiad in London in 2012.