By Tara Malhotra PZ ‘27

Congratulations, America; you have the most Olympic gold! 

Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I always looked forward to the leap years – not because of the 29th day in February, but because of the Summer Olympics. Ethnically Indian, I would yearn to see Team India win medals, only to have my hopes shattered: even in the most recent 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team India won a record 7 medals, a mere 6.2% of Team USA’s 113 medals. As I felt increasingly disheartened that with 1.4 billion people, we were only earning a fraction of the available medals, I conducted a quick internet search to figure out which countries were winning the most Olympic medals. It was the United States, China, United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia, in that order: countries with a high GDP per capita compared to the rest of the world. Ultimately, this made me realize that the amount of Olympic medals a country wins shows more about its wealth than its national athletic ability.

It vexes me to see wealthy nations flaunt their Olympic medals and athletic “achievements” when they are really just a show of who’s rich and who’s not. A country as big as India is bound to have naturally gifted athletes — likely more than the US and UK — yet we are struggling to keep up. The only edge the top five countries have on India is their wealth and, thus, the ability to fund athletic programs. Meanwhile, back in India, we must use our funds to tackle other issues, such as poverty (one of the many present-day problems intensified by colonialism) and border threats that are not as prevalent in wealthier countries. 

In order to gain an expert’s opinion on my claim, I interviewed Viren Rasquinha, director of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) NGO and former captain of the national Indian hockey team. He is dedicated to supporting impoverished, talented Indian athletes with the hopes of winning Olympic medals.  

“More investment leads to more medals,”  Rasquinha said. So, the wealthier a country is, the more it can invest in its Olympic athletes, and therefore, the more medals it will collect. 

Rasquinha also noted that only a small fraction of Indians have access to quality sports facilities. So even if there are naturally talented athletes, they cannot advance their skills due to a lack of facilities, ultimately emphasizing wealth disparities.  

While some believe India lacks a cohesive sports culture (a factor that could affect our odds at the Olympics), the desire to compete in sport is certainly there. I have been organizing sports camps for young Indian children since 2017 and can tell you that their desire to play sports is most definitely prevalent. So once again, the motivation to do well in sports is prominent in India — it’s just the investment that is lacking.

According to a 2005 study conducted at Illinois Wesleyan University by honor student Xun Bian, population, income per capita, and political system are the main factors that affect a country’s Olympic medal counts. While I agree with income per capita (due to its direct correlation with a country’s wealth), I find fault with population and political systems being important factors. Bian cites China, one of the most successful countries in the Olympics, saying that its large population of 1.412 billion improves the odds of producing the next star athlete. The same argument can be made for India –with a population of 1.408 billion– and yet, we are far behind. 

The article also states that “communist countries perform better” (compared to market-based economies) due to their “[centrally]-planned economic [systems]” that allow them to distribute more resources to athletic training. However, the top five countries (excluding China) are all market-based economies. Hence, these two factors are not as important as income per capita or wealth– a perspective that Bian’s argument leaves behind. 

We are still improving; a record 7-medal haul in the 2020 Olympics, 4th-place in the 2022 Asian Games, and our best performance (abroad) yet in the 2022 Commonwealth Games has indicated a steady improvement in Indian athletics, despite our disadvantages. 

Nevertheless, until we address the root factors that underlie which countries succeed (and which do not), we will be left with the same few nations winning Olympic gold medals, simply for having the most literal gold.