24 gold, 125 silver and 44 bronzethat is the record of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the province with the highest number of medals since Spain participated Paris Games of 1900. Total, 154 athletes born in the area have worn the precious award, some on several occasions, such as the tennis player Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (4 medals), the swimmer Mireia Belmonte (4) or the basketball player Pau Gasol (3).
The following is determined per discipline: hockey grass is the one who has awarded the most awards to the province, with 50 players for a total of 62. Behind them is the water polowith 26 athletes and 34 medals and the basketballwith 14 players and 20 badges.
Far behind, at less than half, are the Madrid: of 59 athletes that they have achieved 71 medals (21 gold, 35 silver, 15 bronze). Fill in the ranking in absolute numbers Guipuzcoa with 32 metals (8 gold, 12 silver, 12 bronze).
Small and winners
The following map shows the municipalities of origin of the medal winners. As expected, cities like it Barcelona (100 medals) and Madrid (60) are the ones who stand out. Behind, however, are others such as Terrace who, without even being the capital of a province, has 41 medals to his name. They follow him Santander (17), Saint Sebastian (14), Gijon And The palms (both with 11) or Lerida (10).
Among the smaller towns that have seen the birth of medal winners, it stands out Cangas de Morrazoin Pontevedra, good for nine medals, eight of which in canoeing (David Cal contributes five) and one handball Rodrigo Corrales; Icaztegittain Guipúzcoa, the smallest municipality with a medal winner is: 487 inhabitants and silver in cycling thanks to Leire Olaberriafollows Garinoaine (Navarra), with 523 and silver in football Jon Moncayola.
The podium per province and population
It is clear that in absolute terms Barcelona is the clear winner, but if we stick to the number of medals in relation to the current population of each province we see how Guipuzcoa rise to first place with 4.41 medals per 100,000 inhabitants; Cantabria would occupy the second position with a ratio of 3.59 awards and Barcelona drops to third place with 3.38.
As for the highest award, the goldthe province with the highest share of precious metals per inhabitant Alava which achieves an index of four 1.19 per 100,000The calls contribute greatly to this. “Golden Girls of Atlanta”since half of the members of the rhythmic gymnastics team that topped the podium at the 1996 Games were born in Vitoria (Lorena Guréndez, Tania Lamarca, Estibaliz Martínez). Behind is located Soriaof 1.13 (thanks to Fermin Cacho ) and Guipúzcoa with 1.1.
In the silver , Ceuta with a total of two medals of this metal (in canoeing with José Ramón Lopez and in water polo with Lorraine Miranda ), would remain in first place with 2.39 per 100,000 inhabitants. In second place we find again Barcelona (with 2.19) already Guipuzcoa (with 1.79).
The bronze podium is spread over a radius of several kilometers in the north of our country: again Guipuzcoa with 1.65 per 100,000 inhabitants, Cantabria (1.37) and Álava with 1.20.
Provinces without a medal
Compared to the successes achieved by athletes born in Barcelona, Guipúzcoa or Cantabria, we find the opposite side, that is, provinces that have not put their athletes on the podium even once.