The United States of America has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.
The United States have been the host nation for the modern Olympics on eight occasions. The 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, upping the tally to nine.
American athletes have won a total of 2,765 medals (1,105 of them gold) at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 363 (126 of them gold) at the Winter Olympic Games, making the United States the most prolific medal-winning nation in the history of the Olympics. The U.S. has placed first in the Summer Olympic medal table 19 times out of 30 Summer Olympics and 29 appearances (having boycotted in 1980), but has had less success in the Winter Olympics, placing first once in 24 participations.
The United States Olympic contingent is the only Olympic contingent in the world to receive no government funding; neither training and development costs nor prize money are provided by the U.S. national government.
|-
|1916 Summer Olympics
|Cleveland
|Berlin
|-
|1920 Summer Olympics
|Atlanta<br />Cleveland<br />Philadelphia
|Antwerp
|-
|1924 Summer Olympics
|Los Angeles
|Paris
|-
|1928 Summer Olympics
|Los Angeles
|Amsterdam
|-
|1944 Summer Olympics
|Detroit
|London
|-
|1948 Winter Olympics
|Lake Placid
|St Moritz
|-
|1948 Summer Olympics
|Baltimore<br />Los Angeles<br />Minneapolis<br />Philadelphia
|London
|-
|1952 Winter Olympics
|Lake Placid
|Oslo
|-
|1952 Summer Olympics
|Chicago<br />Detroit<br />Los Angeles<br />Minneapolis<br />Philadelphia
|Helsinki
|-
|1956 Winter Olympics
|Colorado Springs<br />Lake Placid
|Cortina d'Ampezzo
|-
|1956 Summer Olympics
|Chicago<br />Detroit<br />Los Angeles<br />Minneapolis<br />Philadelphia<br />San Francisco
|Melbourne
|-
|1960 Summer Olympics
|Detroit
|Rome
|-
|1964 Summer Olympics
|Detroit
|Tokyo
|-
|1968 Winter Olympics
|Lake Placid
|Grenoble
|-
|1968 Summer Olympics
|Detroit
|Mexico City
|-
|1972 Winter Olympics
|Salt Lake City
|Sapporo
|-
|1972 Summer Olympics
|Detroit
|Munich
|-
|1976 Summer Olympics
|Los Angeles
|Montreal
|-
|1980 Summer Olympics
|Los Angeles
|Moscow
|-
|1992 Winter Olympics
|Anchorage
|Albertville
|-
|1994 Winter Olympics
|Anchorage
|Lillehammer
|-
|1998 Winter Olympics
|Salt Lake City
|Nagano
|-
|2012 Summer Olympics
|New York City
|London
|-
|2016 Summer Olympics
|Chicago
|Rio de Janeiro
|}
Relinquished hosting rights
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Games
!City
!Eventually hosted by
|-
|1976 Winter Olympics
|Denver
|Innsbruck
|}
Medal tables
thumb|left|[[Francis Olympic Field of Washington University in St. Louis, site of the 1904 Olympic Games. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri were the first Olympic Games held outside of Europe.]]
The United States made its Olympic debut in 1896 in Athens, the very first edition of the modern games. The nation performed inconsistently in the pre-World War-I period, primarily due to fielding considerably fewer athletes than host countries, with the exception being the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, where the U.S. achieved its largest medal haul in history, a record that still stands today. During the interwar period, the U.S. enjoyed its greatest success, topping both gold and total medal counts at four straight Summer Games, before falling short in the 1936 Berlin games. The next summer Olympics were held in 1948 following World War II. In 1952, the Soviet Union made its Olympic debut, initiating a state-sponsored approach to international sport focused on projecting socio-political superiority. The rapid rise of the Soviet Union to challenge the United States as a leading Olympic power raised questions and suspicion about the means used to achieve this, including the pretense of professional athletes having amateur status and allegations of state-sponsored doping. After 20 years of competition on the Olympic stage, the USSR convincingly topped the gold medal chart at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. After that, the U.S. would not top the medal table in non-boycotted games until the 1996 Summer Olympics, five years after the USSR collapsed. A bright spot for the United States was the 1984 games in Los Angeles, where the U.S. set a record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics (83), buoyed by the Soviet-led boycott. Coincident with a drive by the International Olympic Committee toward gender parity beginning in the 1990s, the U.S.'s fortunes improved, and the nation topped the medal table in the Summer Olympics six times since 1992 and placed second on two occasions.
In contrast to its summer Olympics status, the United States was not a power in the Winter Games until the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Hosting the games in 2002 boosted the U.S. winter sports program; since then, the country’s athletes have performed consistently well, never placing below fourth in the medal count. The nation won the most medals (37) at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver but dropped to 23 medals at the 2018 games in Pyeongchang.
Medals by Summer Games
Medals by Winter Games
Best results
Summer Olympics
- Gold medals – 83 (1984 Summer Olympics), Olympic record
- Total medals – 231 (1904 Summer Olympics), Olympic record
Winter Olympics
- Gold medals – 12 (2026 Winter Olympics)
- Total medals – 37 (2010 Winter Olympics)
Medals by summer sport
Updated on November 16, 2024
<nowiki>*</nowiki>This table does not include two medals – one silver awarded in the ice hockey and one bronze awarded in the figure skating events at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
The United States has never won an Olympic medal in the following current summer sports or disciplines: badminton, handball, rhythmic gymnastics, table tennis and trampoline gymnastics.
Medals by winter sport
Updated on February 22, 2026
<nowiki>*</nowiki>This table includes two medals – one silver awarded in the ice hockey and one bronze awarded in the figure skating events at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Biathlon is the only current winter sport that the United States has never won an Olympic medal in.
Best results in non-medaling sports
<div align=center>
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;"
! colspan=4| Summer
|-
| Sport
| Rank
| Athlete
| Event & Year
|-
| || 8th || Howard Bach &<br />Bob Malaythong || Men's doubles in 2008
|-
| || 5th || United States women's team || Women's tournament in 1984
|-
| || 9th || Mandy James<br /><br />Kate Nelson<br />Brandi Siegel<br />Challen Sievers<br />Becky Turner || Women's group in 1996
|-
| || 6th || Gao Jun<br />Crystal Huang<br />Wang Chen || Women's team in 2008
|-
| rowspan=2| || rowspan=2| 6th || Savannah Vinsant || Women's individual in 2012
|-
| Nicole Ahsinger || Women's individual in 2020
|-
! colspan=4| Winter
|-
| Sport
| Rank
| Athlete
| Event & Year
|-
| || 5th || Sean Doherty<br />Maxime Germain<br />Paul Schommer<br />Campbell Wright || Men's relay in 2026
|}
</div>
Flagbearers
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Summer Olympics
|-
! style="background:lightblue;"| Games
! style="background:lightblue;"| Athlete
! style="background:lightblue;"| Sport
|-
|
| Ralph Rose
| Athletics
|-
|
| George Bonhag
| Athletics
|-
|
| Pat McDonald
| Athletics
|-
|
| Pat McDonald
| Athletics
|-
|
| Bud Houser
| Athletics
|-
|
| Morgan Taylor
| Athletics
|-
|
| Al Jochim
| Gymnastics
|-
|
| Ralph Craig
| Sailing
|-
|
| Norman Armitage
| Fencing
|-
|
| Norman Armitage
| Fencing
|-
|
| Rafer Johnson
| Athletics
|-
|
| Parry O'Brien
| Athletics
|-
|
| Janice Romary
| Fencing
|-
|
| Olga Fikotová
| Athletics
|-
|
| Gary Hall, Sr.
| Swimming
|-
|
| colspan=2| Did not participate
|-
|
| Ed Burke
| Athletics
|-
|
| Evelyn Ashford
| Athletics
|-
|
| Francie Larrieu Smith
| Athletics
|-
|
| Bruce Baumgartner
| Wrestling
|-
|
| Cliff Meidl
| Canoeing
|-
|
| Dawn Staley
| Basketball
|-
|
| Lopez Lomong
| Athletics
|-
|
| Mariel Zagunis
| Fencing
|-
|
| Michael Phelps
| Swimming
|-
| rowspan=2|
| Eddy Alvarez
| Baseball
|-
| Sue Bird
| Basketball
|-
| rowspan=2|
| LeBron James
| Basketball
|-
| Coco Gauff
| Tennis
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Winter Olympics
|-
! style="background:lightblue;"| Games
! style="background:lightblue;"| Athlete
! style="background:lightblue;"| Sport
|-
|
| Clarence Abel
| Ice hockey
|-
|
| Godfrey Dewey
| Cross-country skiing ()
|-
|
| Billy Fiske
| Bobsleigh
|-
|
| Rolf Monsen
| Cross-country skiing
|-
|
| Jack Heaton
| Skeleton & Bobsleigh
|-
|
| Jim Bickford
| Bobsleigh
|-
|
| Jim Bickford
| Bobsleigh
|-
|
| Don McDermott
| Speed skating
|-
|
| Bill Disney
| Speed skating
|-
|
| Terry McDermott
| Speed skating
|-
|
| Dianne Holum
| Speed skating
|-
|
| Cindy Nelson
| Alpine skiing
|-
|
| Scott Hamilton
| Figure skating
|-
|
| Frank Masley
| Luge
|-
|
| Lyle Nelson
| Biathlon
|-
|
| Bill Koch
| Cross-country skiing
|-
|
| Cammy Myler
| Luge
|-
|
| Eric Flaim
| Speed Skating
|-
|
| Amy Peterson
| Short track speed skating
|-
|
| Chris Witty
| Speed skating
|-
|
| Mark Grimmette
| Luge
|-
|
| Todd Lodwick
| Nordic combined
|-
|
| Erin Hamlin
| Luge
|-
| rowspan=2|
| Brittany Bowe
| Speed Skating
|-
| John Shuster
| Curling
|-
| rowspan=2|
| Erin Jackson
| Speed Skating
|-
| Frank Del Duca
| Bobsleigh
|}
History
Recent period (1994–present)
thumb|left|170px|[[Dara Torres is the third-most decorated female American Olympic athlete after Jenny Thompson and Katie Ledecky, celebrated not only for her athletic achievements but also for defying age norms in competitive sports.]]
U.S. athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympics Games in recent decades, with their fortunes having steadily improved in most sports since 1992. America finished second in the medal count in 1992 and 2008, while placing first at seven other Games in that period.
thumb|right|[[Jennie Finch signing autographs. From 1998 to 2010, Finch became the most recognizable face on a dominant U.S. softball squad. Her 2004 Olympics showing put her on an elite level, as she helped lead Team USA to a gold medal.]]
At the 2016 Summer Games, Kim Rhode became the only female Olympian to win an Olympic medal in six consecutive Olympic Games (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016). She has won three gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals.
The United States, represented by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, the Games were postponed to July 23 to August 8, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The opening ceremony flag-bearers for the United States were baseball player Eddy Alvarez and basketball player Sue Bird. Javelin thrower Kara Winger was the flag-bearer for the closing ceremony. When USA Gymnastics announced that 2016 Olympic all-around champion Simone Biles would not participate in the gymnastics all-around final due to health issues, the spotlight fell on her American teammates. The U.S. had won the event in each of the last five Olympic Games: a formidable winning streak was on the line. Sunisa Lee embraced the moment and stood tall to deliver for her country. She totaled 57.433 to hold off Rebeca Andrade of Brazil (57.298) to clinch the title. Lee also made history of her own. With victory in the all-around she became the first Hmong American gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal, and the first gymnast of Asian descent to do so. With a silver in the women's team final and bronze in the individual uneven bars Lee left Tokyo with an impressive three Olympic medals.
Lydia Jacoby, Alaska's teenage swimming sweetheart, made history when she became the first Alaskan swimmer selected to make the U.S. Olympic swim team. She surprised the swimming world by winning the women's 100m breaststroke. Recent major champion Nelly Korda followed the winning ways of compatriot Xander Schauffele to take home gold in the women's golf competition. The 2.01m-tall thrower Ryan Crouser retained his Olympic title in the men's shot put and did so in some style, setting an Olympic record three times. The U.S. achieved a commanding lead in the overall medal count, with 113 medals, but only edged China in the gold medal tally on the last day, finishing with 39 gold medals to China's 38.
left|thumb|[[Simone Biles at the 2024 Olympic Games. Widely regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of all time, she redefined competitive gymnastics by shattering records, introducing unprecedented high-difficulty skills that bear her name, and establishing herself as the most decorated gymnast in history.]]
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, the U.S. exercised a diplomatic boycott due to the "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses", meaning it did not send any high-level delegation to the Games, but would not hinder athletes from participating. A total of 25 medals meant Team USA won two more medals than in 2018, although it still signifies an overall decline after 37 medals in 2010 and 28 in 2014. For the fifth consecutive games, the Americans won nine gold medals, this time placing third in the medal count. Notable successes included Jessie Diggins becoming the first American female skier to win individual cross-country medals, figure skater Nathan Chen breaking the short program world record en route to the Olympic gold medal in the men's singles, Erin Jackson becoming the first black female athlete to win speed skating gold, and Chloe Kim defending her title in the snowboarding women's halfpipe. Veteran snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, who last medaled in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, was the only U.S. athlete with multiple gold medals, winning the women's snowboard cross event, and sharing the gold with teammate Nick Baumgartner in the mixed snowboard cross event.
Amateurism and professionalism
The exclusion of professionals caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics. The 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals, when it was discovered that he had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics. His medals were posthumously restored by the IOC in 1983 on compassionate grounds.
The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries eroded the ideology of the pure amateur. It put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but all of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. The situation greatly disadvantaged American athletes and was a major factor in the decline of American medal hauls in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, the Olympics shifted away from amateurism, as envisioned by Pierre de Coubertin. They began allowing participation of professional athletes, but only in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its influence within the International Olympic Committee.
Prize money
When a U.S. athlete wins an Olympic medal, as of 2016, the USOPC paid the winner $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. The USOPC increased the payouts by 25% to $37,000 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze beginning in 2017. These numbers are significantly lower than in other countries, where Olympic gold medalists receive up to $1 million from their governments for a gold medal. Since 2018, payouts to Paralympic athletes have been the same as to the Olympians. The International Paralympic Committee noted that "'Operation Gold Awards' for [American] Paralympic athletes [would] be increased by as much as 400 percent".
Financial support for U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes
In 2025, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) announced a historic $100 million donation from Ross Stevens, founder of Stone Ridge Holdings Group (a New York City–based asset management firm specializing in alternative investments, with over $20 billion in assets under management). The gift, the largest in the USOPC's history, provides long-term financial support for future Olympic and Paralympic athletes, addressing the financial burdens they face due to intense training schedules that limit career opportunities. Starting with the 2026 Milan Games through 2032, each participating athlete will receive $200,000 in financial benefits per Olympic appearance. The first half of this amount will be accessible 20 years after participation or upon turning 45 (whichever comes later), with the remainder given to families upon the athlete's death. The donation is intended to provide financial security and a springboard for post-Olympic careers. Many U.S. athletes face significant financial hardships due to limited national support compared to their international counterparts. Unlike many other countries, the U.S. government does not fund its Olympic program, so athletes rely almost entirely on sponsorships and media deals (which generate roughly 75–80% of revenue) plus fundraising (contributing an additional 10–20%). This funding model leaves many Olympians struggling financially during their careers—and even into retirement. In 2024, USOPF president Christine Walshe noted that 57% of U.S. athletes earn $50,000 or less annually. "You don't want athletes being destitute when they finish a long, storied career", USOPF chair Geoff Yang said, describing the donation as "transformational". DeMont originally won the gold medal in 4:00.26. Following the race, the IOC stripped him of his gold medal after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax. The positive test following the 400-meter freestyle final also deprived him of a chance at multiple medals, as he was not permitted to swim in any other events at the 1972 Olympics, including the 1,500-meter freestyle for which he was the then-current world record-holder. Before the Olympics, DeMont had properly declared his asthma medications on his medical disclosure forms, but the USOC had not cleared them with the IOC's medical committee. Before showing the documents to Sports Illustrated, Exum tried to use them in a lawsuit against USOC, accusing the organization of racial discrimination and wrongful termination against him and cover-up over the failed tests. His case was summarily dismissed by the Denver federal Court for lack of evidence. The USOC claimed his case "baseless" as he himself was the one in charge of screening the anti-doping test program of the organization and clarifying that the athletes were cleared according to the rules.
Carl Lewis broke his silence on allegations that he was the beneficiary of a drugs cover-up, admitting he had failed tests for banned substances, but claiming he was just one of "hundreds" of American athletes who were allowed to escape bans, concealed by the USOC. Lewis has acknowledged that he failed three tests during the 1988 US Olympic trials, which under international rules at the time should have prevented him from competing in the 1988 Summer Olympics. Former athletes and officials came out against the USOC cover-up. "For so many years I lived it. I knew this was going on, but there's absolutely nothing you can do as an athlete. You have to believe governing bodies are doing what they are supposed to do. And it is obvious they did not", said former American sprinter and 1984 Olympic champion, Evelyn Ashford.
Exum's documents revealed that Carl Lewis had tested positive three times at the 1988 Olympics trials for minimum amounts of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine, which were banned stimulants. Bronchodilators are also found in cold medication. Due to the rules, his case could have led to disqualification from the Seoul Olympics and suspension from competition for six months. The levels of the combined stimulants registered in the separate tests were 2 ppm, 4 ppm and 6 ppm. The highest level of the stimulants Lewis recorded was 6 ppm, which was regarded as a positive test in 1988 but is now regarded as negative test. The acceptable level has been raised to ten parts per million for ephedrine and twenty-five parts per million for other substances. According to the IOC rules at the time, positive tests with levels lower than 10 ppm were cause of further investigation but not immediate ban. Neal Benowitz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco who is an expert on ephedrine and other stimulants, agreed that "These [levels] are what you'd see from someone taking cold or allergy medicines and are unlikely to have any effect on performance."
Disqualified medalists
The United States has had eight Olympic medals stripped, which is fifth in the ranking of countries with the most stripped medals.
- 1972 Summer Olympics, Rick DeMont – first place, gold medalist, Swimming, Men's 400 m freestyle
- 2000 Summer Olympics, Marion Jones – first place, gold medalist, Athletics, Women's 100 m
- 2000 Summer Olympics, Marion Jones – first place, gold medalist, Athletics, Women's 200 m
- 2000 Summer Olympics, Lance Armstrong – third place, bronze medalist, Cycling, Men's road time trial
- 2004 Summer Olympics, Tyler Hamilton – first place, gold medalist, Cycling, Men's road time trial
- 2012 Summer Olympics, Relay team (Tyson Gay) – second place, silver medalist, Athletics, Men's 4 × 100 m relay
See also
- List of United States Olympic medalists
- United States at the Paralympics
- United States at the Summer Olympics
- United States at the Winter Olympics
- United States at the Pan American Games
- Four territories of the United States send independent Olympic teams (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands)