As is usually the case, the group of future, present and former Florida Gators absolutely dominated the Olympic Games these past two weeks.
The question is, by how much? Just how dominant were the #GatorsInRio?
Among the 31 orange and blue representatives, there were 13 total medals racked up, including eight gold. The medal winners were:
| Florida Gators medal winners | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athlete | Sport | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | Total | ||||||
| Caeleb Dressel | Swimming | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| Conor Dwyer | Swimming | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Kerron Clement | Track and Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Ryan Lochte | Swimming | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Arman Hall | Track and Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Tony McQuay | Track and Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Christian Taylor | Track and Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Novlene Williams-Mills | Track and Field | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Will Claye | Track and Field | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Dan Wallace | Swimming | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Kelly Murphy | Volleyball | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
13 medals in total? That’s impressive as a statistic that stands alone without any perspective… but I did a bit of research in order to gain some perspective, and the school’s overall performance is magnified even more when put into the various perspectives.
First, let’s take a look at where the University of Florida would rank if it were its own country:
| Gold medal count by country | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Country | Gold medals | |||||||||
| 1 | United States | 46 | |||||||||
| 2 | Great Britain | 27 | |||||||||
| 3 | China | 26 | |||||||||
| 4 | Russia | 18 | |||||||||
| 5 | Germany | 17 | |||||||||
| 6 | Japan | 12 | |||||||||
| 7 | France | 10 | |||||||||
| 8 | South Korea | 9 | |||||||||
| T-9 | University of Florida | 8 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Italy | 8 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Australia | 8 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Hungary | 8 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Netherlands | 8 | |||||||||
| T-14 | Brazil | 7 | |||||||||
| T-14 | Spain | 7 | |||||||||
| T-16 | Kenya | 6 | |||||||||
| T-16 | Jamaica | 6 | |||||||||
| T-18 | Cuba | 5 | |||||||||
| T-18 | Croatia | 5 | |||||||||
| T-20 | Canada | 4 | |||||||||
| T-20 | New Zealand | 4 | |||||||||
| T-20 | Uzbekistan | 4 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Argentina | 3 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Greece | 3 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Colombia | 3 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Kazakhstan | 3 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Iran | 3 | |||||||||
| T-23 | Switzerland | 3 | |||||||||
So, if the University of Florida was its own country, it would be tied for ninth in the gold medal count with a host of other countries. Pretty cool. Now, where did UF stack up against other colleges?
| Gold medal count by college | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | College | Gold medals | |||||||||
| 1 | Stanford | 14 | |||||||||
| 2 | California | 12 | |||||||||
| 3 | Texas | 10 | |||||||||
| 4 | USC | 9 | |||||||||
| 5 | Florida | 8 | |||||||||
| 6 | UCLA | 6 | |||||||||
| T-7 | Georgia | 5 | |||||||||
| T-7 | Connecticut | 5 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Oregon | 4 | |||||||||
| T-9 | Indiana | 4 | |||||||||
So Florida is fifth in the country in gold medals, including most in the SEC; only Georgia is close with five, and no other SEC school has more than two. But what about total medals?
| Total medal count by college | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | College | Medals | |||||||||
| 1 | Stanford | 27 | |||||||||
| 2 | California | 22 | |||||||||
| 3 | USC | 21 | |||||||||
| T-4 | Florida | 13 | |||||||||
| T-4 | Texas | 13 | |||||||||
| 6 | Georgia | 10 | |||||||||
| 7 | UCLA | 9 | |||||||||
| T-8 | Indiana | 8 | |||||||||
| T-8 | Penn State | 8 | |||||||||
| T-10 | Connecticut | 6 | |||||||||
| T-10 | West Virginia | 4 | |||||||||
| T-10 | Oregon | 4 | |||||||||
And for the final bit of perspective: Florida had twice as many gold medals as archrival FSU had total medals, none of which were gold. Or in other words: the Seminoles won four total medals at the 2016 Olympics, and the Gators won eight gold medals. How’s that for four and eight?
