List of Olympic medal leaders by year

The following statistics show the winning nations at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Depending on the counting method for the Olympic medal table, these are the nations that won the most gold medals or the most medals overall. At the Summer Games of 1896, 1912, 1964 and 2008; as well as at the Winter Games of 1980, 1984, 1994, 2002, 2010, and 2014, the winning nations were not identical according to the two counting methods.

The gold first ranking system is used by most of the world media, as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC); and also listed here in the further statistics and tables. At this ranking system, the United States has placed first overall by Olympic medal table in the Summer Olympic Games nineteen times, followed by the Soviet Union with six overall victories (not including the 1992 first-place finish by the Unified Team). In the Winter Olympic Games, Norway has placed first overall eleven times and the Soviet Union (prior to its dissolution in 1991) had placed first seven times.