With a record gain of 11 medals, including 4 gold, the Czech team won 18th place in the nations’ ranking at the Olympic Games. The most successful in Tokyo were US athletes, who won 39 gold and a total of 113 medals. However, they secured the championship ahead of China only thanks to medal gains from the last day of the competition.
Czech athletes acquired the most medals in the history of the independent republic. Judo fighter Lukáš Krpálek, kayaker Jiří Prskavec, shooter Jiří Lipták and tennis couple Kateřina Siniaková and Barbora Krejčíková won the gold medal. Silver medals were added by shooter David Kostelecký, canoeist Lukáš Rohan, tennis player Markéta Vondroušová and javelin thrower Jakub Vadlejch. Swordsman Alexander Choupenitch, the double cayak crew Josef Dostál and Radek Šlouf, and the javelin thrower Vítězslav Veselý have bronze.
The Americans pushed themselves to the top of the nations only thanks to the final successes of basketball and volleyball players on the final day. As a result, they have 39 gold medals on their account, one more than China, which has a total of 88 medals. Compared to Rio, however, the Americans are worse off – just 4 years ago in Brazil, US athletes collected 46 gold and a total of 121 medals.
The host country finished third in the evaluation of nations with a record. Japan won 27 gold, 14 silver, and 17 bronze medals at the domestic Olympics. So far, the maximum number of Japanese medal winners was 16 gold from the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. They also surpassed the most successful performance so far, with a total of 58 medals compared to 37 medals from Athens competitions.
Title image: Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, of India, center, stands with silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch, of Czech Republic, left, and bronze medalist Vitezslav Vesely, of Czech Republic, during the medal ceremony for the men’s javelin throw at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
