Olympic athletics: track and field history

he Olympic Athletics competition begins in Beijing on Friday, 15 August and the United States are again expected to be the most successful nation as they have been in the last six Olympic Games and all but three in Olympic history.

In 2004, their eight gold medals ranked as the lowest number of golds for a leading nation until Marion Jones (USA) had three golds and two bronze medals taken away from her, causing their 2000 tally to drop to seven golds and 15 total medals.

Just before Beijing 2008 began, the American Men’s 4x400m relay team were also stripped of their gold medal at Sydney 2000 taking the US total to six golds and 14 medals in total.

This is still enough to name the US as the most successful nation in Athletics at Sydney 2000, according to Infostrada.

Most successful nation in Athletics for each Olympic Games

Year Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
2004 United States 8 12 5 25
2000 United States 6 4 4 14
1996 United States 13 5 5 23
1992 United States 12 8 10 30
1988 United States 13 7 6 26
1984 United States 16 15 9 40
1980 Soviet Union 15 14 12 41
1976 East Germany 11 7 9 27
1972 Soviet Union 9 7 1 17
1968 United States 15 6 7 28
1964 United States 14 7 3 24
1960 United States 12 8 6 26
1956 United States 16 10 5 31
1952 United States 15 10 6 31
1948 United States 12 5 10 27
1936 United States 14 7 4 25
1932 United States 16 13 6 35
1928 United States 9 8 8 25
1924 United States 12 10 10 32
1920 United States 9 12 8 29
1912 United States 16 14 11 41
1908 United States 16 10 8 34
1904 United States 23 23 22 68
1900 United States 16 13 10 39
1896 United States 9 6 1 16