Which country or nation is likely to top the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing Sport Medal Table?

Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing sport is here and is starting on the 13th and ending on the 18th of August. The question in many sailing fans minds is which nation will lead the 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing Sport medal table.

There are 10 events based on different Olympics Sailing Classes and hence question number two, which nation will lead the medal table of the different sailing classes?

Analysis of Nations Dominance at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport

To get a picture of which nations will be on the medal table and even top, we need to look at the history of the Summer Olympics sailing and analyze the winning trends. Looking at the statistics of previous winners, something interesting comes up.

The first three most successful nations in Summer Olympics Sailing Sport have been on top of the medal table for at least 4 times.

These are Great Britain, USA and Norway.

Summer Olympics Sailing most successful nation; Team GB has be on top of the sailing medal table five times, the same case with second positioned nation; Team USA.

The third placed team, Norway has led the medal table 4 times.

Team GB has led the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport medal table in Europe, Asia and Oceania making its medal table leads the most diverse.

Team USA on the other hand has only topped the medal table for a record of 3 times in its own continent; Central and North America and twice in Europe; will they do it in Rio?

Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy was the venue for the London 2012 Summer Olympics Sailing Sport. At this venue, Team GB topped the sailing medal table for the fifth time; will they repeat the feat at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing sport?

This picture if from Wikipedia

Will the most successful sailing nation; Team GB diversify its topping to include South America?

Team Norway ranked third has never topped the medal table outside Europe, besides topping 4 times.

Now the question, will the leader of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics come from those 3 nations? Well maybe yes, maybe no.

Surprisingly 4th placed team Spain has topped the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport medal only once, when they hosted the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the same goes for 5th placed France who have only topped once and at the Asia’s Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics but never in their continent, Europe despite hosting Summer Olympics twice.

Denmark, which has topped Summer Olympics Sailing Sport once; Rome 1960 is ranked 6th, Will the Danes top the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing medal table for a second time and in a foreign continent?

Sweden ranked 7 has only topped the medal table once; will they repeat the feat and top the table?

Australia ranked 8 has topped the medal table twice, both in Europe, while New Zealand ranked 9th has never topped sailing medal table in any of Summer Editions.

Brazil; the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics host is ranked 10, and has topped the medal table twice first at the 1980 Moscow edition and at the USA’s Atlanta 1996 edition, that was 20 years ago, will they take the home advantage and top the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sailing Sport?

The other nations in the medal table for Summer Olympics Sailing sport are Germany which is ranked at position 13 and former West Germany at position 19 and East Germany at position 20, will the Germans combine their sailing prowess and top?

From the above analysis topping medal table can and cannot be guarantee by the top 10 positions overall for sailing leadership

Now based on the table below, which nation will top the Sailing medal table? Use the comment box to tell us what you think.

 

Number of Medal Table Leads	Year	Host City	Position One Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1st Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1900	Paris	Great Britain	3	0	1	4
2	1908	London	Great Britain	4	1	1	6
3	2000	Sydney	Great Britain	3	2	0	5
4	2004	Athens	Great Britain	2	1	2	5
5	2008	Beijing	Great Britain	4	1	1	6
2nd Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1932	Los Angeles	United States	2	1	0	3
2	1948	London	United States	2	1	1	4
3	1952	Helsinki	United States	2	1	0	3
4	1968	Mexico City	United States	2	0	0	2
5	1984	Los Angeles	United States	3	4	0	7
3rd Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1912	Stockholm	Norway	2	0	0	2
2	1920	Antwerp	Norway	7	3	1	11
3	1924	Paris	Norway	2	1	0	3
4	1928	Amsterdam	Norway	1	1	0	2
4th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1992	Barcelona	Spain	4	1	0	5
5th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1988	Seoul	France	2	0	0	2
6th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1960	Rome	Denmark	1	2	0	3
7th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1956	Melbourne	Sweden	2	0	0	2
8th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1972	Munich	Australia	2	0	0	2
2	2012	London	Australia	3	1	0	4
9th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
New Zealand has never topped Summer Olympics Sailing Medal Table
10th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1980	Moscow	Brazil	2	0	0	2
2	1996	Atlanta	Brazil	2	0	1	3
13th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1964	Tokyo	Germany	1	1	0	2
2	1936	Berlin	Germany	1	1	1	3
19th Most Successful Nation at the Summer Olympics Sailing Sport
1	1976	Montreal	West Germany	2	0	1	3

  

 

Host Brazil has topped the medal table twice, both away from home, will they become the first nation to top the Sailing medal table in a South America continent?

Team GB has topped the medal in other continents except for the America’s, will they break the jinx and do it in South America? Team USA has topped all Central and North America Summer Olympics except for Atlanta 1996 when they lost to Brazil, will they upset Brazil and take Rio 2016 Summer Olympics sailing medal glory at the host home to return the favour?

Will France, Sweden and Spain lead the medal for the second time, or will New Zealand join the big boys to sit on top of sailing table at the Rio Summer Olympics Sailing Sport for the first time?

Will Germany sit on top for a third time or will we have a totally new medal table winner, i.e. Russia, China or an African country?

Will Australia add South America as part of its winning streaks away from home as always?

All the above questions will be answered soon enough and lets keep our fingers crossed.

Other nations one cannot be taken for granted are Netherlands, Soviet, Union (Russia), Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Finland, West Germany (Now Germany), East Germany (Now Germany) or China, ranked 21st Please tell us what you think by commenting.