Did You Know Team USA Has Never Won a Medal in THESE 5 Olympic Sports?

Did you know that Team USA has never won a medal in the following sports? Which are these, let’s find out!

By Natasha Bose

Published on Jul 30, 2024 | 05:01 PM IST | 461.4K

Which Olympic Sport Has the USA Never Won a Medal in? Find Out

In this Article

Trampoline
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Handball
Table Tennis
Badminton

The United States has a remarkable history in the Olympic Games, securing a staggering 1,061 gold medals since the first modern games in 1896. The nation excels in swimming, track and field, and many other events. However, there are a few sports where no American has ever stood on the podium.

The USA has a win tally of 2667 medals across 43 different sports at the Olympics. Now, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, there are opportunities to earn its first medals in breaking, a new event. Yet, for some older sports, the wait continues. Based on past performances and current prospects, it might be some time before the U.S. changes this pattern.

Here are five summer Olympic sports where the U.S. has never won a medal:

Trampoline

Trampoline was introduced to the Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games and will appear for the seventh time in Paris. In this period, 19 countries have claimed 36 medals, but the USA has none.

Savannah Vinsant and Nicole Ahsinger achieved the best American results, finishing sixth in 2012 and 2020, respectively. For the 2024 Olympics, Aliaksei Shostak and Jessica Stevens will represent the USA, aiming to win the country’s first trampoline medal.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics debuted as an individual event at the 1984 Olympics and added a team event in 1996. Europe has dominated, with only China, Canada, and Israel winning medals outside Europe across ten Olympics.

The best U.S. result in rhythmic gymnastics is 11th place, achieved by Valerie Zimring in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and Laura Zeng in the 2016 Rio Games. The U.S. team finished 11th out of 14 teams at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, marking their first appearance since 1996. They finished last among 14 teams in Rio.

Despite strong performances in artistic gymnastics, the U.S. hasn't found similar success in rhythmic gymnastics. At the 2024 Paris Games, the U.S. will have one athlete, Evita Griskenas, competing in the individual event.

Handball

It's surprising that with over 1000 gold medals, the U.S. hasn’t qualified for the men’s or women’s Olympic handball events since the 1996 Atlanta Games. France, South Korea, and Norway have the most medals in Olympic handball history.

The men’s team has competed in six Olympics, with their best result being sixth place in 1936, when there were only six teams. They’ve won just four games across these appearances.

The women’s team has appeared in four Olympics between 1984 and 1996, with their best result being fifth place out of six teams in 1984. The U.S. handball team won’t be at the 2024 Paris Games, so their poor record in the sport will likely persist.

Table Tennis

Since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988, America hasn’t won a medal, even though it has competed in every Olympics since then.

China has dominated, winning 16 medals. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, despite sending six athletes, the U.S. didn’t win any medals in table tennis.

Chen Wang has the best American result in table tennis, reaching the women’s singles quarterfinals in Beijing in 2008. Juan Liu had the best performance for American players in Tokyo, reaching the fourth round of the women’s singles as the №68 seed.

For the 2024 Paris Games, the USA will send four players: Kanak Jha, Amy Wang, Lily Zhang, and Rachel Sung.

Badminton

America has struggled in badminton at the Olympics. Since badminton became an Olympic sport in 1992, it has included men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles (added in 1996).

In eight Olympics, the U.S. has never reached the final. Their best result was reaching the quarterfinals. In the 2008 Beijing Games, the men’s doubles team of Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong made it to the quarterfinals, which was their best performance.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Beiwen Zhang won two matches in women’s singles but lost in the round of 16. Timothy Lam (singles) and brothers Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew (doubles) did not win any matches.

Seven U.S. badminton players have qualified for the Olympics based on the BWF Race to Paris Rankings: Howard Shu, Vinson Chiu, Joshua Yuan, Beiwen Zhang, Annie Xu, Kerry Xu, and Jennie Gai.