The United States is by far the winningest country in the history of the Olympic Games, taking home 1,061 gold medals since 1896. While the nation has dominated in the pool, on the track and throughout the Olympics as a whole, there are a handful of sports where no American has ever stepped on the podium.
The U.S. will have chances to earn its first medals in breaking, the lone new event debuting at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but there are also older sports where the country is still chasing its first medals. Based on its Olympic history and outlook in Paris, it could be a while before the U.S. bucks the trend, too.
Here are the five Summer Olympics sports where the U.S. has never taken home hardware:
Badminton
The U.S. has had a tough time even advancing within the five badminton tournaments at the Olympics. Men’s and women’s singles and doubles have been full-medal events since 1992, while mixed doubles entered in 1996. In eight Olympics with the sport involved, the U.S. has only reached the quarterfinals of any tournament one time, as the men’s doubles team of Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong reached the round of eight in the 2008 Beijing Games.
Beiwen Zhang got two wins in women’s singles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before falling in the round of 16. Timothy Lam (singles) and brothers Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew (doubles) went winless on the men’s side.
Handball
The U.S. has not even qualified for the men’s and women’s Olympic handball tournaments since 1996, when it was the host nation for the Atlanta Games.
The men’s squad has participated in the Olympic tournament six times with its highest finish in sixth place back in 1936 — when there were only six teams in the competition. The men’s team has won four total games across its six Olympic appearances.
The women’s squad has made it to the Olympics four times, all coming from 1984 to 1996. Its top finish was fifth place out of six teams in 1984.
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics made its Olympic debut as an individual event in 1984 and added a team event in 1996. Europe has completely dominated the sport since the beginning, with China, Canada and Israel as the only three countries from other continents to claim a medal across 10 Olympics.
The United States’ highest finish in the event is 11th place, reached by Valerie Zimring during the boycotted 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Laura Zeng during the 2016 Games in Rio and the U.S. team in Tokyo. The team’s appearance in the 2016 Games was its first since the group was given a host country spot in 1996. The team finished in 14th place out of 14 teams in Rio before improving to 11th out of 14 teams at the most recent Olympics.
Table tennis
The U.S. has not won a medal in table tennis since it was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1988, despite being one of 16 countries to participate in the sport at each of the last 10 Olympics.
Chen Wang owns the best American finish in Olympic table tennis history after reaching the women’s singles quarterfinals in Beijing. Juan Liu had the most successful run of any American table tennis player in Tokyo, advancing to the women’s singles fourth round as the No. 68 seed.
Trampoline
Trampoline will be making its seventh Olympic appearance during the Paris Games. Ten countries have combined to win the 36 medals doled out since 2000, but the U.S. has not taken home any of them.
Savannah Vinsant and Nicole Ahsinger had the best finishes of any Americans, placing sixth in 2012 and 2020, respectively.
