A vibrant opening ceremony in Paris kickstarted the Paris Olympics on 26 July 2024. Athletes from all over the world from 206 countries are set to represent their nation on the global stage in the hope of winning gold for their country.
Let us take a look at the countries that will have the most athletes and the countries with the least athletes at the Paris Games.
Countries with the most athletes at the Paris Olympics
There are some unsurprising nations on the top with the USA leading the list with 594 athletes at the Paris Olympics. The Americans will participate in 31 out of the 32 sports in Paris with handball being the only exception.
Players like LeBron James and Steph Curry will represent the USA basketball team and Simone Biles among many gymnasts in the USA contingent. Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff are among the 11 tennis players representing the Americans.
Host nation France sits second with 593 representatives with 2032 Olympics hosts Australia rounding off the top 3 with 460 athletes.
Germany sent the fourth biggest contingent this year with 427 athletes and Japan one place below them with 404 athletes. Italy sent 403 athletes, China 388, and Spain 382.
Great Britain and Canada round off the top 10 with 327 and 318 athletes at the Paris Olympics respectively.
India will have 110 athletes at the Olympics this year. PV Sindhu, who is the only athlete to win multiple medals for India in the Olympics, will lead India’s badminton contingent. India’s medal hopes will also rely on veteran table tennis player Manika Batra, archer Deepika Kumari, and gymnast Neeraj Chopra.
Countries with the least athletes at the Paris Olympics
Belize, Liechtenstein, Nauru, and Somalia will be the least represented nations at the Paris Olympics with one athlete each.
American Samoa, Andorra, Cook Islands, Mauritania, Myanmar, and Tuvalu will have two athletes each, and Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principe, Saint Kitts and Nevis. Palau, Malawi, Lesotho, Kiribati, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Brunei Darussalam, and Bhutan with 3 athletes each.
Besides countries like Barbados, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Oman, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Tonga, Virgin Islands, British, Yemen have four athletes at Paris Olympics with US Virgin Islands, Togo, Suriname, Sierra Leone, San Marino, Malta, Iceland, Guyana, Gabon, Benin, Bangladesh with five representatives.
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Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
