Hi guys, I just came across this interesting wiki article counting the Olympic medals of american universities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_universities_with_Olympic_medals.
I think it’s interesting to see many Ivy schools high up in the list. And even MIT has 2 GOLD MEDALS! WOW How do you think? Does that agree with your impression of the best sports school nowadays? 
These are schools with students who won Olympic medals not necessarily the best sports universities in the US. Often they are individual sports rather than team sports. But check out football at MIT last year!
The list is too long to compile. Does Harvard still have the largest budget for inter-collegiate sports and intramural activities? I think U of Texas-Austin has the most lucrative media broadcast rights contract. U of Florida has won the Commissioner’s Cup more than once for all-sports championships. And those are just D1 schools. Some small schools have several terrific athletic programs.
I agree it might not be a perfectly accurate list, but I think there does exist a positive correlation though: a good sports university does not rank low in the list of Olympic medals, and a university with high rank in the Olympic list cannot be weak in sports. Some of the Ivy schools are pretty strong in winter sports, like Dartmouth and Harvard. California schools take the first 4 spots in the list, and their medals are far more than those of others - they do have the Olympic tradition and perform well in NCAA.
Sure a school with a few students who won Olympic medals can be weak in sports. The school may have nothing to do with the success of individual athletes who are often accepted after they have spent at least a decade training. The elite status of their athletics may get them accepted to the school with lower credentials than others need, and they may continue to train but the school may have nothing to do with their success.
I understand what you meant. That does make sense. But I’m talking about some kind of correlation, not exact correspondence though… So for the majority of schools, the correlation seems to exist. Anyway, can you give me an example of the school you talked about? Thanks
I’m not referring to a particular school. Rather, I don’t think there is any relationship.
That I don’t agree. Of course there is a relationship, and the problem is how strong that relationship is. If you do check out the top 10 schools in the Olympic medal list, the majority of medals were won by students of a university who won the medals at the time they were attending the university.
Remember, a lot of those medals were awarded a long, long time ago.
There was once a time when Yale., Princeton and the University of Chicago were nationally dominant in football too.
Interesting how all of the top Olympic schools are in California.
Cuz California has nice weather? LOL
Anyway, here’s a list someone just suggested from NCAA, pretty consistent with the Olympic medal list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACDA_Directors%27_Cup
Cool list!. But not a single Olympic medalist ever went to UChicago? That’s kinda disappointing. Even Northwestern has a handful of medalists…
A single swimmer an earn a dozen medals while a entire soccer team can only earn one. Therefore, number of medals is a pretty useless metric.
That’s not an exhaustive list. The University of Alaska, Fairbanks has had several students win Olympic medals in cross-country skiing and shooting.
Dang Stanford, it keeps blocking UF’s attempts at the Directors Cup!! Having 21+ varsity sports compare to UF’s 12 will do it. We need to add Water Polo, Beach Volleyball and Synchronized Swimming!!!
I don’t think you’re right @GMTplus7 . Each soccer team member receives a medal, and according to explanation right before that list, each member is counted once if he/she receives a medal.
It is there! Alaska is #53 in the list, with 4 medals.
Of course there is University of Chicago. #49, with 8 medals.
Well now the list has some credibility!
An individual soccer player can earn at most ONE medal per Olympic game. There are no separate soccer medals to be earned for 50m pitch, 100m pitch, 200m pitch, 400m pitch, 800m pitch, soccer w one hand tied behind your back, soccer w 2 hands tied behind your back, the way swimming is w excruciating niggling permutations of length and strokes. With soccer it’s just one event.
I know about this because I have 2 kids: a soccer player & a swimmer. My soccer player has a few medals; my swimmer has dozens. Sitting thru a swim meet that goes thru every possible combination of strokes X length X relays X medleys is like watching paint dry. Lots and lots of events and lots and lots of opportunities for an individual swimmer to win a doz medals.
In the unlikely circumstance that an entire Olympic soccer team sources its players from one school, the most medals each soccer player can net is ONE. Swimmers OTOH can each bring home a half doz or more medals.
In the 2008 Summer Olympics, the reason China scored so many medals is that they deliberately “gamed it” to focus on obscure sports that award multiple medals-- sports that most people don’t care about.