World's Biggest Losers: Which of the Most Populous Countries Have Won NO Olympic Medals in the 21st Century?

Tweet

Hidilyn Diaz broke her country's losing streak 

Yesterday, we reported on the countries that had won the most medals in the most recent Olympics. Now, on to the losers - those countries that have won no medals.

Actually, in the 21st century, the majority of countries to compete in the Olympics have not won any medals. But these "losers" are mainly small countries.

84% of the world's population lives in countries that have won medals.

16% live in countries that have not.

I'm sure they're scenic.

Okay, so you can't really blame Outer South Bleckistan (population 80% yaks), which only fields one weightlifter (the same guy each time), for coming up short.

Not everyone can be the Bahamas or Jamaica.

But what about populous countries? What's their excuse?

Here is the list of the ten most populous countries that have not won a single medal in the 21st century (country name, population, number of medals).

1. Pakistan: 194,533,033, 0
2. Bangladesh: 161,186,032, 0
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire): 85,026,000, 0
4. Myanmar (Burma): 51,486,253, 0
5. Tanzania: 48,775, 567, 0
6. Iraq: 37,883,543, 0
7. Peru: 31,488,700, 0
8. Nepal: 28,431,500, 0
9. Ghana: 27,670,174, 0
10. Yemen: 27,478,000, 0

The Philippines were number three on the list until this Sunday, when Hidilyn Diaz won a Silver Medal in Women's 53kg Weightlifting.

Five of these countries won medals previous to the year 2000. Five of them have never won medals in the history of the games. They are:

1. Bangladesh
2. Democratic Republic of the Congo
3. Myanmar
4. Nepal
5. Yemen

In Rio, Bangladesh is fielding 7 athletes, Congo 4, Burma 7, Nepal 7 and Yemen 4.

In this post, I've been a bit snarky (in the interests of humor). But of course even athletes from the "loser" countries deserve high praise for just making the Olympics. Those athletes aren't losers in any sense. They did something that 99.99% of all men and women have never done.

God guide them in their Olympic events, lose or win.

But of course, all things being equal, it's always better to win . . .