Which regions commonly rank highest in summer medals?

• A. Scandinavian countries and Australia and New Zealand
• B. China and India
• C. United States and Canada
• D. Japan and Korea

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is how regional sports systems translate into success across a broad set of summer events. Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand stand out because they tend to have wide participation and strong, well-funded programs across many popular summer disciplines—think swimming, track and field, rowing, sailing, cycling, and similar sports. This combination of a large talent base, robust coaching pipelines, good competition infrastructure, and national support helps athletes reach the podium in multiple events, which in turn drives higher regional medal totals in summer competitions.

Other regions can excel in specific sports, but they don’t consistently produce medals across as many summer disciplines, so they don’t rank as high in these broader summer medal assessments.