A podium sweep is where a team or nation comes in first, second and third, such as at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, and wins all available medals, which are recognized by a podium ceremony. The word sweep is commonly used in North American sports such as

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

which have

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

or regular season series, to describe a situation where one team wins all the games in a series, for example, with a 4–0 victory in a best-of-seven series. The term is also used in a broader sense when a country, team or athlete wins all possible prizes in a competition. At the highest level, that would be when one nation wins all the medals in the

Prevention

To encourage competition, some event organizers or federations implement rules to prevent podium sweeps. At the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

won all six medals at the singles events in

Table Tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

, across both genders. Following this, the ITTF limited each country at the Olympics to entering a maximum of two contestants per gender in the singles competition, thereby ensuring that no country could win more than four of the six medals available.

Lists of podium sweeps

List of medal sweeps in Olympic athletics A podium sweep is when one team wins all available medals in a single event in a sporting event. At the highest level, that would be when one nation wins all the medals in the Summer Olympics Athletics. Many Olympic sports or events do not all ...

* List of medal sweeps in Olympic table tennis * List of medal sweeps in Olympic speed skating * List of medal sweeps in Olympic figure skating * List of medal sweeps in Olympic snowboarding * List of medal sweeps in Olympic cross-country skiing * List of medal sweeps in Paralympic Games

References

{{sport-stub Sports terminology Terminology used in multiple sports

Prevention

Lists of podium sweeps

See also

References