Entrants and medals by country - European & Olympic/World Championships

All events compared

What this page tests

How does GB & NI's medal rate - medals as a % of entrants - compare with the rest of Europe?

European and Olympic/World Championships, by country group and four-year period since 2000.

What we found

GB & NI's medal rate (medals as a % of entrants) is rising against Europe's - but track is driving it, while field is in decline (next page).

GB & NI's overall medal rate is up: 12.4% of entrants won a medal in 2020-2023 and 13.48% in 2024-2027, against a European average of 7.4% and 8.3% (at or above Europe in 4 of the last 7 periods).

But the team is shrinking - 329 entrants (2016-2019), then 258, then 230 - and page 2 shows the whole improvement is track. Field is sending fewer athletes and converting fewer of them.

Data Analysis and Charts data used and method

Scope of data used in this analysis:

Competition types: European Championships only, Olympic and World Championships
Area competition dates: 06 Aug 2002 - European Championships, München (GER) to 10 Aug 2026 - European Championships, Birmingham (GBR)
Olympic/World competition dates: 22 Sep 2000 - Olympic Games, Sydney (AUS) to 13 Sep 2025 - World Championships, Tokyo (JPN)
Events: Running (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 100mH / 110mH, 400mH, 3000m SC), Jumping (HJ, PV, LJ, TJ), Throwing (Shot, Discus, Hammer, Javelin), Combined

Entrant = one athlete in one event at one championship; medal = places 1-3 in the final. Country is taken from each World Athletics result. Periods hold unequal numbers of championships (2024-2027 is about two-thirds through), so compare shares and rates, not raw counts.

Medals as a % of entrants, by period

Entrants, medals and medal %

One row per country group per period, for the scope selected above. Groups with zero entrants in a period are omitted.