List of Olympic medal leaders by year
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The following statistics show the winning nations at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Depending on the counting method for the Olympic medal table, these are the nations that won the most gold medals or the most medals overall. At the Summer Games of 1896, 1912, 1964 and 2008; as well as at the Winter Games of 1980, 1984, 1994, 2002, 2010, and 2014, the winning nations were not identical according to the two counting methods.
The gold first ranking system is used by most of the world media, as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC); and also listed here in the further statistics and tables. At this ranking system, the United States has placed first overall by Olympic medal table in the Summer Olympic Games nineteen times, followed by the Soviet Union with six overall victories (not including the 1992 first-place finish by the Unified Team). In the Winter Olympic Games, Norway has placed first overall eleven times and the Soviet Union (prior to its dissolution in 1991) had placed first seven times.
Summer Olympics
List by Games
Only at four Summer Olympic Games did the leader in the medal standings not also win the most medals in total. In all these occasions, the second-place nation in the medal ranking won the most medals in total, and the first-place nation won the second-most:
- 1896:
Greece (2nd place, 47 medals) - 1912:
Sweden (2nd place, 65 medals) - 1964:
Soviet Union (2nd place, 96 medals) - 2008:
United States (2nd place, 112 medals)
List by team
| Summer Olympics | |||||
| Rank | Nation | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States | 19 | 8 | 2 | |
| 2 |  Soviet Union | 6 | 3 | 0 | |
| 3 |  China | 1 | 4 | 2 | |
| 4 |  Germany | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 5 |  Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| 6 |  France | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| 7 |  Unified Team | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 |  Sweden | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
 East Germany | 0 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 10 |  Russia | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 11 |  Finland | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Italy | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 13 |  Greece | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
 Romania | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 15 |  Japan | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 16 |  Hungary | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 17 |  Canada | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
 Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| West Germany | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Total | 20 nations | 30 | 30 | 30 | |
Winter Olympics
List by Games
Only at six Winter Olympic Games did the leader in the medal standings not also win the most medals in total. In almost all of these occasions, the second-place nation in the medal ranking won the most medals in total, except for one in which the third-place nation in the medal ranking won the most:
- 1980:
East Germany (2nd place, 23 medals) - 1984: Soviet Union (2nd place, 25 medals)
- 1994:
Norway (2nd place, 26 medals) - 2002:
Germany (2nd place, 36 medals) - 2010: United States (3rd place, 37 medals)
- 2014:
Russia (2nd place, 29 medals)
List by team
| Winter Olympics | |||||
| Rank | Nation | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Norway | 11 | 3 | 2 | |
| 2 | Soviet Union | 7 | 2 | 0 | |
| 3 | Germany | 3 | 5 | 1 | |
| 4 | United States | 1 | 4 | 7 | |
| 5 | East Germany | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| 6 | Sweden | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| 7 | Canada | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 8 | Russia | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 |  Austria | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 10 | Finland | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 11 |  United Team of Germany | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Unified Team | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 13 |  Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 14 | France | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Total | 15 nations | 26 | 24 | 25 | |
