The United States is by far the most gold medal-winning country in Olympic history, winning 1,061 gold medals since 1896. While the U.S. has dominated in the pool, on the track and at the Olympics overall, there are some sports in which an American has never reached the podium.
The U.S. has a chance to win its first medal in breaking, the only new event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but there are also older sports in which the country is still looking to win its first medal. Given U.S. Olympic history and the outlook for the Paris Olympics, it may be a while before the U.S. bucks the trend.
Here are five Summer Olympic sports in which the United States has never brought home a medal.
badminton
The U.S. has struggled to even advance in any of the five Olympic badminton tournaments. Men’s and women’s singles and doubles have been medal events since 1992, and mixed doubles has been in place since 1996. In the sport’s eight Olympic Games, the U.S. has only made it to the quarterfinals of any tournament once, when the men’s doubles team of Howard Bach and Bob Murrayton reached the quarterfinals in 2008 at the Beijing Games.
Zhang Beiwen won two women’s singles matches at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but was eliminated in the round of 16. On the men’s side, Timothy Lam (singles) and brothers Phillip and Ryan Chew (doubles) both failed to win.
handball
The United States has never even competed in the men’s or women’s Olympic handball competition since hosting the Atlanta Games in 1996.
The men’s team has competed in six Olympic Games, with their best result being sixth place in 1936, when only six teams competed in the tournament. The men’s team has won a total of four times in six Olympic Games.
The women’s team competed in a total of four Olympic Games between 1984 and 1996. Their best result was in 1984, when they placed 5th out of six teams.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics debuted in the Olympic Games in 1984 as an individual event, with a team event added in 1996. From the beginning, Europe has dominated the sport, with only three countries from other continents – China, Canada and Israel – ever to win a medal in the 10 Olympic Games.
The best U.S. finish in the event was 11th, achieved by Valerie Zimring at the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Games, Laura Zeng at the 2016 Rio Games, and the U.S. team at the Tokyo Games. The 2016 Games marked the U.S.’s first appearance since hosting the event in 1996. The team finished 14th out of 14 teams in Rio and improved to 11th out of 14 teams in the most recent Olympics.
Table tennis
Despite being one of 16 countries to have competed in table tennis in the past 10 Olympic Games, the United States has not won a medal in table tennis since the sport was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1988.
Cheng Wang, who reached the quarterfinals of the women’s singles at the Beijing Olympics, became the best performing American player in Olympic table tennis history, while Huang Liu, who was the best performing American player in Tokyo, reached the fourth round of the women’s singles as the 68th seed.
trampoline
Paris will be trampoline’s seventh Olympic appearance. Since 2000, 10 countries have won a combined 36 medals, but the United States has yet to bring home a single one.
Savannah Vinsant and Nicole Ursinger were the best Americans, placing sixth in 2012 and 2020, respectively.
