How Did Latin American Countries Do in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games?

The Olympic Games have finished. The closing ceremony has had its moment of fame, and now it’s time to do some analysis. Of course, we could have done it before, but we wanted to wait until we saw the final medal standings to see how Latin American countries did overall.

This edition of the Olympic Games was quite different from others. On the one hand, as it usually happens, new disciplines appeared, and others did not. However, the central singularity of Tokyo 2020 (actually celebrated in 2021) was the global context of the pandemic. This event affected the event itself, as regards spectators and media, and on performance. How did Latin American athletes and teams do in Tokyo 2020?

Overall Performance in Tokyo 2020

The gold and overall medal leader were the United States, which does not fall into this category. They received 39 gold awards, which, added to the rest of the medals, gave an overall result of 113. Second to them, and very close, was the People’s Republic of China, with one gold medal below the US and 88 in total.

These results were as expected since both countries tend to have good performances during all Olympic Game editions. But despite this fact, they deserve both our recognition and salute from us at Inmersivo, Empointe’s learning platform.

Top Disciplines

The USA, medal leader in the 2020 Olympic Games, the discipline with the most gold medals won was swimming, with 11 awards. These statistics include both men’s and women’s participation and every variety of this same sport.

On the other hand, China’s best disciplines as regards gold awards were diving and weightlifting. Both led the gold medal score table with seven awards each. Once again, these statistics include all varieties of both men’s and women’s participation.

Latin American Countries Top Performances in Tokyo 2020

Latin American countries struggled to make an appearance in the top 10 medal ranking. And it was very close for Brazil, which ended up in the 12th position with seven gold medals and 21 awards overall.

The second best Latin American country was Cuba. Like Brazil, they received seven gold medals and added up to 15 awards for the overall chart. We also congratulate both country’s athletes and Olympic teams for their effort and success during this Olympic Games edition.

Gold Medals for Brazil and Cuba

As we mentioned before, both Brazil and Cuba received seven gold medals during the 2020 Olympic Games. Their athletes and Olympic teams strived for glory and achieved significant success in different disciplines.

In the case of Brazil, they received gold awards for their superior performances in artistic gymnastics, boxing, canoe spring, football (or soccer), marathon swimming, sailing, and surfing. Furthermore, they also received 14 more medals for their outstanding performances in other disciplines.

As regards Cuba, their superior performance in boxing gave place to four of their gold medals. They also received this top award in wrestling (2) and canoe sprint. As a plus, they also earned eight more top-three recognitions in other disciplines.

Latin American Overall Performance in Tokyo 2020

But Brazil and Cuba were not the only Latin American countries to achieve a place on the Olympic podium. Apart from the two previously mentioned nations, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Mexico also managed to earn either a gold, silver, or bronze medal in different disciplines. Here is a chart with the overall performance of Latin American countries in the Tokyo 2020 edition of the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Rank criteria take gold medals as a top priority, followed by silver and bronze. This method means that the total number of medals earned does not place it above others if they have more gold medals.

The Effects of The Pandemic on Athlete’s Performance

The COVID-19 pandemic had the entire world under variable lockdown systems and is still a constant threat. Due to this fact, many athletes (both Latin American and others) experienced severe difficulties in keeping up with their training. And, as it is popularly known, being forced to abandon your routine can affect your performance. Several videos showing athletes training in controversial ways appeared during this year.

Besides congratulating all countries and individual athletes striving to achieve an Olympic performance and represent their nations, from Inmersivo, we understand the difficulties and share their efforts. Earning a medal is a great honor, but participating under such complex circumstances is worth the mention. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and follow us on our social media to receive more news, tips, and updates on English related to sports. Thank you for reading!