The List: The World’s Worst Olympians

tauringhuang.

Posted July 2008  

International sporting events are about nothing if not national pride. Here are five countries whose Olympic performance leaves their countrymen with little to celebrate.



EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty ImagesIndia

Medal count: 17

Score card: Think of India as the Washington Nationals of Olympic sport. India is by far the worst-performing Olympic country—no matter how you slice it. It’s not for lack of trying. A games participant since 1900, India still ranks behind Nigeria, a country with an economy one twentieth India’s size, in total medals. The country’s athletic ineptitude is so profound that a parliamentarian called for two minutes of silence to “lament the demise of Indian sports” after the squad failed to win any medals in Barcelona in 1992.

What’s wrong? Few sports venues (roughly 33 stadiums and sports complexes for 1.1 billion people), a lack of school sports programs, stingy government funding, and a narrow talent base. The result? A country whose most celebrated claim to Olympic greatness is “The Flying Sikh,” a track-and-field star who broke hearts by placing fourth at the 1960 Rome Games. It’s not that Indians can’t excel at athletics. Since 1933, the state of Punjab has hosted its own “rural Olympics,” where competitors vie for glory in tug of war, mule-cart racing, sack lifting, tent pegging, and various feats of strength. And there’s hope in the air. Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has established a trust to fund athletes’ training and medical care and “put India firmly on the medal grid” for 2012.


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JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty ImagesVenezuela

Medal count: 10

Score card: In May 2008, Hugo Chávez professed high hopes for his country’s Olympic team, which the Venezuelan president labeled “bearers of the homeland shame and the national pride.” Chávez is sending 100 athletes to Beijing, but if history is any bench mark, the strongman’s ambitions are sure to be dashed. Venezuelans have brought home only as many medals as Trinidad and Tobago, despite winning their first medal in Helsinki in 1952. Georgia, which first medaled at the 1996 Atlanta Games, has already outpaced the Bolivarian Republic. Venezuela has taken home only one gold, and the only Venezuelan woman to earn a medal is Adriana Carmona, who won the bronze for tae kwon do in Athens in 2004.

What’s wrong? Misplaced priorities. In a bizarre turn reminiscent of the film Cool Runnings, Venezuela fielded a male luge team in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. And although the father-son team did hold the prestigious titles of both oldest and youngest male lugers at the games, they didn’t bring home any medals. (Neither did Jamaica—which, incidentally, has won triple Venezuela’s medal count.)


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MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty ImagesIsrael

Medal count: 6

The score card: The Jewish state may command outsized attention in the diplomatic arena, but Israel’s performance on the field of sport has been anything but impressive. Since winning its first medal in 1992, Israel remains tied with Uganda in the medal count. Of the other countries that first reached the podium in Barcelona, Israel has been left in the dust by Croatia, Slovenia, and Lithuania.

What’s wrong? Israel claims to have gotten serious about prestigious international competition only in the past two decades, despite having had a recognized Olympic committee since 1952. According to the committee’s Web site, “[I]n the beginning, participation was important for the sake of the flag and the symbolic value. During the mid-1980s, however, the Olympic Committee set itself a further goal—placing Israel on the map of world achievements.” When Gal Fridman took home Israeli’s first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games, a columnist for Haaretz acidly observed that the windsurfing champion had “confounded the Israeli athletic ethos that enshrines mediocrity and even aggrandizes it.”


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Ian Waldie/Getty ImagesTaiwan*

Medal count: 15

The score card: In the medal count, Taiwan ranks with Mongolia, whose economy is roughly one hundredth its size. Taiwan has half the medals of Ethiopia, which, like Taiwan, won its first medal at the 1960 Rome Games.

What’s wrong? Taiwan’s Olympic status has always been contested. For years, mainland China boycotted the games to protest Taiwan’s participation. Communist Party leaders succeeded in 1979 in getting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to agree that Taiwan had never been a recognized Olympic country and that it would have to compete as “Chinese Taipei.” Taiwan must also march under a special Olympic flag and may play only the “National Flag Anthem” on the few occasions when its athletes reach the podium. Many Taiwanese also blame pro-Korean judges for robbing them of medals in tae kwon do.


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ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty ImagesPeru

Medal count: 4

The score card: Peru stands with Zimbabwe and Moldova, arguably the biggest losers in Africa and Eastern Europe, respectively, as a top Olympic washout in its region. Nor does Peru fare well among countries that also took home their first medal at the 1948 London Games. Jamaica—whose economy is one tenth the size of Peru’s—has brought home 10 times as many medals.

What’s wrong? Poverty and lack of infrastructure. Just 10 short years ago, more than half of Peru’s Olympic team was suffering from malnutrition. Practicing in crumbling stadiums, on ancient equipment, and with only some able to obtain uniforms, the athletes lined up for pasta doled out by the IOC. But not all Olympic hope has been lost in Lima. In May 2008, President Alan García threw his hat in the ring along with Chicago, Madrid, Doha, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and Baku in a bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Trouble is, the deadline for applications had passed nine months earlier, and competing cities were already raising funds and building infrastructure. Undaunted, President García simply announced a week later that he would like to play host in 2020, saying “Peru should think big.”

*Note: Legally speaking, Taiwan is not a country, though it does maintain de facto independence.