I’m not going to sit here and tell you I know all about sailing. But I will tell you that sailing is definitely an underrated sport. Having watched it during the Olympics several times, there’s so much going on out there that it’s a lot more complex than simply having your sail at the right angle. I don’t know how the sailors do it. They deserve props for mastering a complex sport. My medal projections are based off the finishes in the world championships. I honestly couldn’t tell you much more than that.

Medal	Men’s windsurfer – IQ foil	Country
Gold	Luuc van Opzeeland	Netherlands
Silver	Nicolo Renna	Italy
Bronze	Sam Sills	Great Britain
Medal	Men’s kite – Formula Kite	Country
Gold	Maximilian Maeder	Singapore
Silver	Axel Mazella	France
Bronze	Valentin Bontus	Austria
Medal	Men’s One-Person Dinghy – ILCA 7	Country
Gold	Matthew Wearn	Australia
Silver	Michael Beckett	Great Britain
Bronze	Lorenzo Chiavarini	Italy
Medal	Men’s skiff – 49er	Country
Gold	Bart Lambriex Floris van de Werken	Netherlands
Silver	Florian Trittel Diego Botin	Spain
Bronze	Sebastien Schneiter Arno de Planta	Switzerland
Medal	Women’s windsurfer – IQ foil	Country
Gold	Helene Noesmoen	France
Silver	Emma Wilson	Great Britain
Bronze	Sharon Kantor	Israel
Medal	Women’s kite – Formula Kite	Country
Gold	Gisela Pulido	Spain
Silver	Breiana Whitehead	Australia
Bronze	Eleanor Aldridge	Great Britain
Medal	Women’s One-Person Dinghy – ILCA 7	Country
Gold	Maud Jayet	Switzerland
Silver	Anne-Marie Rindom	Denmark
Bronze	Marit Bouwmeester	Netherlands
Medal	Women’s skiff – 49er	Country
Gold	Vilma Bobeck Rebecca Netzler	Sweden
Silver	Odile van Aanholt Annette Duetz	Netherlands
Bronze	Olivia Price Evie Haseldine	Australia
Medal	Mixed two-person dinghy – 470	Country
Gold	Keiju Okada Miho Yoshioka	Japan
Silver	Jordi Xammar Nora Brugman	Spain
Bronze	Jeremie Mion Camille Lecointre	France
Medal	Mixed multihull – Nacra 17	Country
Gold	John Gimson Anna Burnet	Great Britain
Silver	Ruggero Tita Caterina Banti	Italy
Bronze	Emil Jarudd Cecilia Jonsson	Sweden

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Netherlands	2	1	1	4
Great Britain	1	2	2	5
Spain	1	2	0	3
Australia	1	1	1	3
France	1	1	1	3
Sweden	1	0	1	2
Switzerland	1	0	1	2
Japan	1	0	0	1
Singapore	1	0	0	1
Italy	0	2	1	3
Denmark	0	1	0	1
Austria	0	0	1	1
Israel	0	0	1	1

One of the two marquee sports at the Games, swimming is ubiquitous with the Olympics here in the United States. It’s one of the sports the United States must dominate at in order to have a chance in the medals race. What I didn’t realize until writing this was exactly how good China has become at this sport. They are starting to take back medals that were easily American. So, the USA may not have the chance to stock up golds in the pool like they have in the past.

Projections:

Men’s events:

Medal	Men’s 50m freestyle	Country
Gold	Cameron McEvoy	Australia
Silver	Benjamin Proud	Great Britain
Bronze	Caeleb Dressel	United States
Medal	Men’s 100m freestyle	Country
Gold	Pan Zhanle	China
Silver	Jack Alexy	United States
Bronze	David Popovici	Romania
Medal	Men’s 200m freestyle	Country
Gold	David Popovici	Romania
Silver	Matthew Richards	Great Britain
Bronze	Lukas Martens	Germany
Medal	Men’s 400m freestyle	Country
Gold	Lukas Martens	Germany
Silver	Elijah Winnington	Australia
Bronze	Samuel Short	Australia
Medal	Men’s 800m freestyle	Country
Gold	Samuel Short	Australia
Silver	Bobby Finke	United States
Bronze	Daniel Wiffen	Ireland
Medal	Men’s 1500m freestyle	Country
Gold	Bobby Finke	United States
Silver	Daniel Wiffen	Ireland
Bronze	Samuel Short	Australia
Medal	Men’s 100m backstroke	Country
Gold	Ryan Murphy	United States
Silver	Xu Jiayu	China
Bronze	Apostolos Christou	Greece
Medal	Men’s 200m backstroke	Country
Gold	Ryan Murphy	United States
Silver	Hubert Kos	Hungary
Bronze	Hugo Gonzalez	Spain
Medal	Men’s 100m breaststroke	Country
Gold	Qin Haiyang	China
Silver	Nic Fink	United States
Bronze	Adam Peaty	Great Britain
Medal	Men’s 200m breaststroke	Country
Gold	Qin Haiyang	China
Silver	Leon Marchand	France
Bronze	Matt Fallon	United States
Medal	Men’s 100m butterfly	Country
Gold	Caeleb Dressel	United States
Silver	Josh Liendo	Canada
Bronze	Noe Ponti	Switzerland
Medal	Men’s 200m butterfly	Country
Gold	Tomoru Honda	Japan
Silver	Leon Marchand	France
Bronze	Thomas Heilman	United States
Medal	Men’s 200m individual medley	Country
Gold	Wang Shun	China
Silver	Carson Foster	United States
Bronze	Leon Marchand	France
Medal	Men’s 400m individual medley	Country
Gold	Leon Marchand	France
Silver	Carson Foster	United States
Bronze	Chase Kalisz	United States
Medal	Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	Italy	Italy
Medal	Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	Great Britain	Great Britain
Medal	Men’s 4x100m medley relay	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	China	China

Women’s events:

Medal	Women’s 50m freestyle	Country
Gold	Sarah Sjostrom	Sweden
Silver	Shayna Jack	Australia
Bronze	Katarzyna Wasick	Poland
Medal	Women’s 100m freestyle	Country
Gold	Siobhan Haughey	Hong Kong
Silver	Mollie O’Callaghan	Australia
Bronze	Sarah Sjostrom	Sweden
Medal	Women’s 200m freestyle	Country
Gold	Ariarne Titmus	Australia
Silver	Mollie O’Callaghan	Australia
Bronze	Summer McIntosh	Canada
Medal	Women’s 400m freestyle	Country
Gold	Ariarne Titmus	Australia
Silver	Katie Ledecky	United States
Bronze	Summer McIntosh	Canada
Medal	Women’s 800m freestyle	Country
Gold	Katie Ledecky	United States
Silver	Ariarne Titmus	Australia
Bronze	Li Bingjie	China
Medal	Women’s 1500m freestyle	Country
Gold	Katie Ledecky	United States
Silver	Simona Quadarella	Italy
Bronze	Anastasiia Kirpichnikova	France
Medal	Women’s 100m backstroke	Country
Gold	Regan Smith	United States
Silver	Kaylee McKeown	Australia
Bronze	Katharine Berkoff	United States
Medal	Women’s 200m backstroke	Country
Gold	Kaylee McKeown	Australia
Silver	Regan Smith	United States
Bronze	Phoebe Bacon	United States
Medal	Women’s 100m breaststroke	Country
Gold	Tang Qianting	China
Silver	Ruta Meilutyte	Lithuania
Bronze	Lilly King	United States
Medal	Women’s 200m breaststroke	Country
Gold	Kate Douglass	United States
Silver	Tatjana Smith	South Africa
Bronze	Lilly King	United States
Medal	Women’s 100m butterfly	Country
Gold	Gretchen Walsh	United States
Silver	Torri Huske	United States
Bronze	Zhang Yufei	China
Medal	Women’s 200m butterfly	Country
Gold	Regan Smith	United States
Silver	Summer McIntosh	Canada
Bronze	Elizabeth Dekkers	Australia
Medal	Women’s 200m individual medley	Country
Gold	Kate Douglass	United States
Silver	Kaylee McKeown	Australia
Bronze	Summer McIntosh	Canada
Medal	Women’s 400m individual medley	Country
Gold	Summer McIntosh	Canada
Silver	Kaylee McKeown	Australia
Bronze	Katie Grimes	United States
Medal	Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay	Country
Gold	Australia	Australia
Silver	United States	United States
Bronze	China	China
Medal	Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay	Country
Gold	Australia	Australia
Silver	United States	United States
Bronze	China	China
Medal	Women’s 4x100m medley relay	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	China	China

Mixed event:

Medal	Mixed 4x100m medley relay	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	China	China

Projected medal count:

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
United States	16	10	9	35
Australia	7	13	3	23
China	5	1	7	13
Canada	1	2	3	6
France	1	2	2	5
Germany	1	0	1	2
Romania	1	0	1	2
Sweden	1	0	1	2
Hong Kong	1	0	0	1
Japan	1	0	0	1
Great Britain	0	2	2	4
Ireland	0	1	1	2
Italy	0	1	1	2
Hungary	0	1	0	1
Lithuania	0	1	0	1
South Africa	0	1	0	1
Greece	0	0	1	1
Poland	0	0	1	1
Spain	0	0	1	1
Switzerland	0	0	1	1

Badminton is a fascinating sport; to the untrained eye it’s almost impossible to tell what’s a winning shot. It looks like a player has just won the rally, when the rally ends up going on another 20 shots. As much grief as it gets in the United States for being an Olympic sport, it’s actually a very good staple of the Olympic program.

Tokyo 2020 results:

Medal	Men’s singles	Country
Gold	Victor Axelsen	Denmark
Silver	Chen Long	China
Bronze	Anthony Sinisuka Gintling	Indonesia
Medal	Men’s doubles	Country
Gold	Lee Yang Wang Chi-lin	Taiwan
Silver	Li Junhui Liu Yuchen	China
Bronze	Aaron Chia Soh Wooi Yik	Malaysia
Medal	Women’s singles	Country
Gold	Chen Yufei	China
Silver	Tai Tzu-ying	Taiwan
Bronze	P. V. Sindhu	India
Medal	Women’s doubles	Country
Gold	Greysia Polii Apriyani Rahayu	Indonesia
Silver	Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan	China
Bronze	Kim So-yeong Kong Hee-yong	South Korea
Medal	Mixed doubles	Country
Gold	Wang Yilyu Huang Dongping	China
Silver	Zheng Siwei Huang Yaqiong	China
Bronze	Yuta Watanabe Arisa Higashino	Japan

Outlook (as of June 26, 2023):

This is one of the sports China needs to do well in for their hopes of knocking the United States out of the top spot. They had two golds in Tokyo, but that wasn’t enough. However, in all three events that they didn’t win gold, they ended up with silver. That should be a concern for the U.S., because all the Chinese need to do is flip two of those three, and they take the medal count.

Of course, the inverse is also true. Perhaps China flips two of those silvers to golds, but then also has the golds swapped to silvers. But it’s not that easy! Keep in mind that one of those events was a gold-silver finish for China. So even if it was flipped, it’s still a China gold. Because of that, I’m going to be very bullish on China’s prospects in badminton for 2024.

Update (as of June 25, 2024):

Chinese players have rocketed up the men’s singles rankings, and China always does well at this event. Players from Indonesia are still high up there, but I have to add a Chinese player to my medal predictions, if not two. My women’s picks are the same as they were a year ago, except in different order. Doubles gold medal picks remain the same, but there are some changes in the other medals.

Projections:

Medal	Men’s singles	Country
Gold	Viktor Axelsen	Denmark
Silver	Shi Yugi	China
Bronze	Jonatan Christie	Indonesia
Medal	Men’s doubles	Country
Gold	Liang Wei Keng Wang Chang	China
Silver	Fajar Alfian Muhammad Rian Ardianto	Indonesia
Bronze	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Chirag Shetty	India
Medal	Women’s singles	Country
Gold	Chen Yufei	China
Silver	An Se-young	South Korea
Bronze	Akane Yamaguchi	Japan
Medal	Women’s doubles	Country
Gold	Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan	China
Silver	Liu Shengshu Tan Ning	China
Bronze	Baek Ha-na Lee So-hee	South Korea
Medal	Mixed doubles	Country
Gold	Zheng Siwei Huang Yaqiong	China
Silver	Yuta Watanabe Arisa Higashino	Japan
Bronze	Feng Yanzhe Huang Dongping	China

Projected medal count:

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
China	4	2	1	7
Denmark	1	0	0	1
Japan	0	1	1	2
Indonesia	0	1	1	2
South Korea	0	1	1	2
India	0	0	1	1

Archery became popular thanks to Katniss Everdeen and the Hunger Games. That movie caused the sport to be one of the most watched at London 2012 (a few months after the Hunger Games movie came out). I have to admit, I’m one of the fans who was in that category.

They also changed the format of archery to make it more enticing to watch. Personally, I saw nothing wrong with the way they used to do it, but the new format is better for TV, so there you have it.

Tokyo 2020 results:

Medal	Men’s Individual	Country
Gold	Mete Gazoz	Turkey
Silver	Mauro Nespoli	Italy
Bronze	Takaharu Furukawa	Japan
Medal	Men’s team	Country
Gold	Kim Woo-jin Oh Jin-hyek Kim Je-deok	South Korea
Silver	Deng Yu-cheng Tang Chih-chun Wei Chun-heng	Taiwan
Bronze	Takaharu Furukawa Yuki Kawata Hiroki Muto	Japan
Medal	Women’s individual	Country
Gold	An San	South Korea
Silver	Elena Osipova	Russia
Bronze	Lucilla Boari	Italy
Medal	Women’s team	Country
Gold	An San Jang Min-hee Kang Chae-young	South Korea
Silver	Svetlana Gomboeva Elena Osipova Ksenia Perova	Russia
Bronze	Michelle Kroppen Charline Schwarz Lisa Unruh	Germany
Medal	Mixed team	Country
Gold	Kim Je-deok An San	South Korea
Silver	Steve Wiljer Gabriela Schloesser	Netherlands
Bronze	Luis Alvarez Alejandra Valencia	Mexico

Outlook (as of June 25, 2023):

I didn’t even realize until now that there were different bows used in archery and that those different categories mean that there’s totally different world rankings based on which bow you use. I’m now sort of fascinated by this. You’ve got the compound, the barebow, and the recurve, and the recurve is the Olympic one. That’s the one which I will use the world rankings to decide my projections.

Projections:

Medal	Men’s individual	Country
Gold	Marcus D’Almeida	Brazil
Silver	Brady Ellison	United States
Bronze	Kim Woojin	South Korea
Medal	Men’s team	Country
Gold	South Korea	South Korea
Silver	China	China
Bronze	Taiwan	Taiwan
Medal	Women’s individual	Country
Gold	Penny Healey	Great Britain
Silver	Bryony Pitman	Great Britain
Bronze	An San	South Korea
Medal	Women’s team	Country
Gold	South Korea	South Korea
Silver	Taiwan	Taiwan
Bronze	China	China
Medal	Mixed team	Country
Gold	United States	United States
Silver	Taiwan	Taiwan
Bronze	South Korea	South Korea

Projected medal count:

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
South Korea	2	0	3	5
Great Britain	1	1	0	2
United States	1	1	0	2
Brazil	1	0	0	1
Taiwan	0	2	1	3
China	0	1	1	2