The United States has yet to reach the podium at these five Olympics – NBC New York

The United States is by far the most successful country in Olympic history, collecting 1,022 gold medals since 1896. While the nation has dominated the pool, track, and the Olympics as a whole, there are a handful of sports where no American has ever stepped on the podium.

The U.S. has the opportunity to earn its first medals at several debut new events at the Tokyo Olympics, including skateboarding and swimming competitions, but there are also older sports in which the country continues to chase its first medals. Based on its Olympic history and outlook for Tokyo, it may take some time before the U.S. also bends the trend.

Here are five summer Olympic sports for which the United States has never taken home equipment:

Badminton

In the United States, it has been difficult to advance in even five badminton tournaments at the Olympics. The men’s and women’s singles and doubles have been full-length sporting events since 1992, while mixed doubles entered in 1996. With seven of the sports involved in the Olympics, the U.S. has only reached the semi-finals of any tournament once, with Howard’s men’s doubles team Bach and Bob Malaythong games.

The country has one competitor in both the men’s and women’s singles doubles as well as the men’s singles duo 2020 games. Timothy Lam is the 41st men’s player, while Beiwen Zhang is the 11th player to enter the women’s singles tournament. Brothers Phillip and Ryan Chew will also represent U.S. badminton in the men’s doubles tournament. Zhang offers the United States the best chance of winning a medal in all five of these sports.

Team handball

The United States has not even entered the men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments since 1996, when it hosted the Atlanta Games.

The men’s team has competed in the Olympic tournament six times, and finished in the top sixth in 1936 – when there were only six teams in the race. The men’s team has won four games in a total of six of their Olympics.

A number of women have entered the Olympics four times, all coming in 1984-1996. Its number one ranking was Fifth and achieved its first appearance.

The United States reached a historic milestone by capturing its thousandth gold medal in the history of the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was a continuation of the history of global control of the Olympics in the United States.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics made its Olympic debut as a single event in 1984 and added to the team event in 1996. Europe has completely dominated the sport from the beginning, with China and Canada being the only two countries on other continents to ever claim a medal during the nine Olympics. .

The highest ranking in the U.S. at the event is 11th place, achieved by Valerie Zimring in the boycotted 1984 games in Los Angeles and Laura Zeng in the 2016 games in Rio. The teams ’appearance in the 2016 Games was the first since the group was given the host country rank in 1996. The team finished 14th out of the Rio 14 team.

In Tokyo, Zeng and Evita Griskenas will compete in a single event, while Isabella Connor, Camilla Feeley, Yelyzaveta Merenzon, Lili Mizuno, Elizaveta Pletneva and Nicole Sladkov will compete from the United States in a group event.

Why do the Olympics bite their medals? The answer to this and more as we dive deep into the history of Olympic medals.

Table tennis

The United States has not won a medal in table tennis since it was introduced at the 1988 Olympics, but Tokyo has six American competitors.

The U.S. table tennis team has two tent athletes: 21-year-old Kanak Jha in the men’s singles and team, and 24-year-old Lily Zhang in the women’s singles and team. They are ranked 30th and 31st in the world in their own singles events. Five-time national champion Zhang has better odds of earning a medal in Tokyo after finishing fourth in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, but is still considered far away. Nikhil Kumar and Xin Zhou combine Jhan with American men, while Huijing Wang and Juan Liu complete the women’s team.

Chen Wang holds America’s best goal in Olympic table tennis history after reaching the women’s singles quarterfinals in Beijing.

Trampoline

The trampoline will make its sixth Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Games. Nine countries have united to win 30 medals since 2000, but the United States has not exported any of them.

Savannah Vinsant had the best ranking of all Americans, finishing seventh in 2012. There was no men’s or women’s finalist (top eight) in the U.S. in 2016, with Logan Dooley finishing 11th in men and Nicole Ahsinger in 15th.

Ahsinger represents the United States again in Tokyo, while Aliaksei Shostak competes on the men’s side.