The

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan, from 23 July to 8 August 2021. The Games were postponed by one year as part of the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports The COVID-19 pandemic caused the most significant disruption to the 2020 in sports, worldwide sporting calendar since World War II. Across the world and to varying degrees, sports events were cancelled or postponed. The 2020 Summer Olympics in ...

. However, the Games was referred to by its original date in all medals, uniforms, promotional items, and other related media in order to avoid confusion in future years. A total of 11,417 athletes from 206 nations participated in 339 events in 33 sports across 50 different disciplines. Overall, the event saw two records: 93 nations received at least one medal, and 65 of them won at least one gold medal. Athletes from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

won the most medals overall, with 113, and the most gold medals, with 39. Host nation

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

won 27 gold medals, surpassing its gold medal tally of 16 at both the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and 2004 summer editions. Athletes from that nation also won 58 medals overall, which eclipsed its record of 41 overall medals won at the previous Summer Olympics. American swimmer

Caeleb Dressel Caeleb Remel Dressel (born August 16, 1996) is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He swims representing the Cali Condors as part of the International Swimming League. He won ...

won the most gold medals at the Games with five. Meanwhile, Australian swimmer

Emma McKeon Emma Jennifer McKeon, (born 24 May 1994) is a retired Australian competitive swimmer. She is an eight-time world record holder, three current and five former, in relays. Her total career haul of 14 Olympic medals following the 2024 Olympic Gam ...

won the greatest number of medals overall, with seven in total. As a result, she tied

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

gymnast

Maria Gorokhovskaya Maria Kondratyevna Gorokhovskaya (, ; 17 October 1921 – 22 July 2001) was a Soviet gymnast of Jewish descent. At the 1952 Summer Olympics, she was the first woman to win seven medals at one Olympics. That is the highest number of medals wo ...

's seven medals at the 1952 Summer edition for most medals won at a single Games by a female athlete.

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

won their nations' first Olympic gold medals. Meanwhile,

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

and

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

won their nations' first Olympic medals.

Medals

The medals used for the 2020 Summer Olympics were designed by Junichi Kawanishi. They were manufactured using metal extracted from recycled small

electronic device Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

s donated by the public. The ribbon uses the traditional Japanese design motifs found in , a harmonised

chequer Draughts (British English) or checkers (American English), also called straight checkers or simply draughts, is a form of the strategy board game checkers (or draughts). It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The pieces m ...

ed pattern, and , a traditional

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

layering technique. The case is manufactured from Japanese ash wood dyed with the same colour as the Olympic emblem. The circular lid and the body of the case can be opened like a ring connected by a magnet. The obverse of the medals features

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

, the Greek goddess of victory, in front of

Panathenaic Stadium The Panathenaic Stadium (, ) or ''Kallimarmaro'' ( , ) is a multi-purpose stadium in Athens, Greece. One of the main historic attractions of Athens, it is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. A stadium was built on the site o ...

and the

Olympic rings The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses icons, flags, and symbols to represent and enhance the Olympic Games. These symbols include those commonly used during Olympic competitions such as the flame, fanfare, and theme as well as those u ...

. As a result of safety protocols stemming from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, athletes were presented with their medals on trays, and were asked to put them on themselves (or each other, in the case of team winners), rather than having them placed around their necks by a dignitary.

Medal table

The medal table is based on information provided by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC) and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables. The table uses the

Olympic medal table The Olympic medal table is a method of sorting the medal placements of countries in the modern-day Olympics and Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially recognize a ranking of participating countries at the Olympic ...

sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by a

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals. If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their

IOC country code This is a list of International Olympic Committee (IOC) country codes. Current NOCs There are 206 current NOCs (National Olympic Committees) within the Olympic Movement. The following tables show the currently used code for each NOC and any d ...

. In

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

, and

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

, two bronze medals are awarded in each weight class. Two gold medals (and no silver) were awarded to

Mutaz Essa Barshim Mutaz Essa Barsham (; born 24 June 1991) is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the former Olympic Champion. He is also the former World Champion and second highest jumper of all-time with a personal best of 2.4 ...

and

Gianmarco Tamberi Gianmarco Tamberi (; born 1 June 1992) is an Italian high jumper, previous Olympic champion (2020), European outdoor champion (2024) and World outdoor champion (2023). He won the 2021 Diamond League crown, becoming the first ever Italian to do ...

for a first-place tie in the men's high jump athletics event. Two bronze medals were awarded to

Angelina Melnikova Angelina Romanovna Melnikova ( rus, Ангели́на Рома́новна Ме́льникова, , ɐnɡʲɪˈlʲinə ˈmʲelʲnʲɪkəvə; born 18 July 2000) is a Russian artistic gymnast. With eleven Olympic and World medals, she is the j ...

and

Mai Murakami is a Japanese retired artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast and Olympic medalist. She is the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, 2017 and 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2021 World champion on floor exercise, the 2018 Art ...

for a third-place tie in the women's floor gymnastics event. ;Key

Changes in medal standings

;Key Disqualified athlete(s)

Notes

References

External links