The Wild History of San Marino at the Olympics

[@paulojrneto]

A few curious facts about San Marino - San Marino is actually the oldest Republic in the world, dating back to the 4th century AD, and throughout the centuries it kept its borders virtually untouched without any other state willing to take over it. Even Mussolini left it alone. - San Marino has two heads of state called captain-regents that rule for six months (there are elections to elect a new pair every April and October), and each former captain-regent can only be re-elected three years later after their last term. Therefore, it's the country who has had more women as head of state. - It's the only country with more cars than people. - Flo-Rida represented San Marino at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in collaboration with Italian singer Senhit. They finished in 21st place.

[@voxathletica]

Thanks for dropping in some San Marino trivia! It's an unbelievably fascinating place, the history of the Olympics just scratches the surface.

[@seed_drill7135]

Flo Rida?🤣

[@voxathletica]

@@seed_drill7135 Weird, right? But amazing!

[@paulojrneto]

@@seed_drill7135 Yes, look it up.

[@seed_drill7135]

@@voxathletica Is her brother Al Aska?

[@btredinnick4747]

While San Marino is the smallest country to win an Olympic medal, Liechtenstein is the smallest to win a Gold medal. This was in the Winter Olympics (As with all of their 10 medals), where the Alpine country unsurprisingly produced some excellent skiers.

[@voxathletica]

Absolutely true! At least, it's true until San Marino wins a gold medal :)

[@michaeltnk1135]

I visited San Marino recently and there are a ton of gun shops everywhere. Makes sense that their speciality is shooting

[@voxathletica]

That's interesting to hear, while you were there did you get any explanation for why?

[@michaeltnk1135]

@@voxathletica No I didn’t get an explanation, my assumption is that gun laws are way less strict in San Marino than Italy. So a lot of Italians probably cross the border to take advantage of this

[@jessicavitale3408]

When they go the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, I hope they get to visit the city of San Marino in Los Angeles County... Everyone in the city of San Marino will get a kick out seeing them walk into the Satdium.

[@voxathletica]

HAHA I hadn't even thought of that, hopefully they make the trip and get a few pictures next to the road signs!

[@MatthewESC88]

I've been WAITING for someone to make a video on this for years. Its such an amazing story that the media barely covered. I actively follow how the european micronations do in the olympics. Monica Doria of Andorra has a lot of potential to get Andorra's first medal, but that will have to wait in 2028. I reckon Myles Amine can win San Marino a bronze in 2024

[@voxathletica]

It's such an amazing story, I was surprised too but how little there was out there on the story. Or the story wasn't mentioned with a lot of the historical or personal context which makes it so fascinating and remarkable. I think the fact it occurred at the disrupted Tokyo Olympics hurt the coverage, there was a lot of other stuff in the news at the time to say the least. And I reckon you're right, if Amine did it once he can do it again. We'll find out soon enough!

[@christianlorre]

Maybe a video on Liechtenstein? Theres a lot of stuff there. They had the same flag as Haiti until the countries first met at the 1936 summer games so then both countries added things to their flags. Their national anthem is to the same rhythm as God Save The King/Queen. The only country to win winter olympic medals but no summer medals. And this year they sent a whole one athlete - Romano Puntener who Andy Murray among others desperately felt the need to meet to trade pins because there's so few chances at Liechtenstein.

[@voxathletica]

Wow, lots of good stuff there for sure! I've put Liechtenstein on my list as that sounds really, really interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

[@geekynerd7346]

They had one Olympics where they did great in skiing

[@markjoseph196]

I’m waiting for the Vatican to win a medal 😅

[@voxathletica]

What sport do you think they would win a medal in first?

[@anxiousdylan]

Fantastic video! Video request: NZ - how can a country of 5 million people consistently send around 200 athletes and get 10+ medals every games?

[@voxathletica]

Great idea, I've put it on my list! Not sure I'll have time to do it before the end of the Paris 2024 games, but I'll look into it for sure. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@xvgm24]

I don't know what the ultimate answer is but I'd say something that helps with that is the sporting culture is generally huge in NZ, with most boys and girls growing up playing a sport from a young age.

[@voxathletica]

@@xvgm24 I'm looking forward to doing some research on it

[@theawesomeman9821]

Fantastic video! I enjoyed learning about the sports history of San Marino. Also, another great story you should cover is how Wayne Gretzky popularized ice hockey in California.

[@voxathletica]

Glad you liked the video! And great idea about Gretzky, it's going on my list!

[@ZenithLegend]

San Marino has more Olympic medals than Bangladesh, with a population 5,000 times smaller.

[@voxathletica]

It's a wild stat when you put it into context like that

[@archiethebold2000]

San Marino: The Mouse that Roared. Next, the FIFA World Cup.

[@voxathletica]

Seriously, why stop at the Olympics?!

[@archiethebold2000]

@@voxathletica S.Marino also competes to get to the finals of the FIFA World Cup, and the UEFA Championship. They have NEVER won a game; expect a friendly against Liechtenstein (off a penalty kick). To their credit they have scored the fastest goal in UEFA history in a game against none other than England. Needless to say, they went on to lose.

[@colorfulmarbles156]

You should do the Dominica and Saint Lucia histories after their record gold medals

[@voxathletica]

Both of them have incredible stories, I'll probably run out of time before the end of Paris 2024 unfortunately but I've socked them away for down the road

[@colorfulmarbles156]

@@voxathletica okay!

[@ryanyuk]

You should make a list of cities that never hosted a game, often try, and should soon. some ideas come to mind, Istanbul, Budapest, Madrid, Cairo, Chicago, Baku, Doha, Prague, Havanna, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Manchester, Birmingham, Belgrade, etc

[@voxathletica]

That's a fantastic idea, thank you! I think someone else suggested something similar, but I really appreciate you starting me off with some of your selections!

[@Kruhn]

Yay San Marino!!!!!

[@voxathletica]

Incredible stuff! What an amazing story

[@alexjones50]

I remember watching the mixed trap shooting final back in 2021, such a shame they couldn't take the gold there, it was real close. sadly it's been back to normal in 2024, no medals for san marino there.

[@voxathletica]

How wild would it be if they win nothing for 60 years, win 3 in Tokyo, then go back to nothing for decades? That would make this story even wilder somehow

[@ariccua6101]

The funny thing is I only know this country from an annual song contest.

[@NIDELLANEUM]

If you were a soccer fan, you'd also know because their national team is the worst ever. In their whole history, they only won one game

[@ariccua6101]

This country also invited Flo Rida to sing with them in 2021.

[@voxathletica]

I'm assuming that's Eurovision?

[@voxathletica]

I'm seriously considering a video on their national football team, what a story

[@colorfulmarbles156]

Oh……… 2021 was good 2022 I forgot 2023 I forgot 2024 I forgot

[@superplash8400]

On that same Olympics , Philippines also made history , not just by winning it's first Olympic gold ( by Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting ) , but also the most medals won in a single Olympics , at total of 4 ( 1 gold , 2 silver, and 1 bronze) . Silver medals came from Nesty Petecio and Carlo Paalam ( Boxing) and bronze for Eumir Felix Marcial ( also from boxing) .

[@voxathletica]

Well done Philippines, great to see some more medal coming their way!

[@RyanSchuckman]

Impressive that they can even produce 5 Olympians from such a tiny population - 35,000 is almost the size of my town 😂

[@voxathletica]

Right? It's quite something, San Marino's Olympic tradition is remarkable

[@cs.s7723]

lets see if they win one this year

[@voxathletica]

They sent 5 athletes again this year. 4 have already competed and not medaled, but Myles Amine is still yet to compete in wrestling. So he's San Marino's last chance in Paris 2024

[@longtreecityltc9325]

This year 2 little islands won for the first time a medaille and there where gold! Also very interesting.

[@voxathletica]

The 100m women's final was historic, what a race!

[@colorfulmarbles156]

Saint Lucia 🇱🇨 and 🇩🇲 Also have S Tier flags

[@longtreecityltc9325]

@@voxathletica Will you also make a video of the Netherlands (my country). Probely the smallest country with the most medailles. The 3x3 basketbal gold yesterday was great!

[@voxathletica]

@@longtreecityltc9325 The Netherlands has an unbelievable Olympic tradition, it's well worth a video. I was actually going to do one for the winter Olympics, specifically on the Dutch strengths in speed skating

[@longtreecityltc9325]

@@voxathletica Nice! Speed skating is boring even if my country wins. The medailles in short track, snowboarding and last Olympics even in skeleton are more special to me.

[@kevinwuryanto2240]

also do bermuda, it's the smallest country to win first gold at tokyo

[@voxathletica]

It's on my list, Bermuda's Olympic history is a good one too, but I think I'm going to run out of time before the end of Paris 2024. But I'll get to it for sure at some point

[@encorefootball]

It's fitting you do a video on this country because when it comes to football, they have not won a competitive game of international football sonce they started in 1990. They compete in qualifiers for the Euros and World Cup in addition to the UEFA Nations League, but they have no wins. Their only win was a 1-0 win against Liechtenstein in a friendly game, where no points or trophies were on offer. It's heartwarming to know the San Marinese have won medals in other sports on a global scale. It's almost comparable to my mother's nation of Hong Kong winning medals, but 33k versus 7.5 million.

[@voxathletica]

A few folks have suggested a San Marino football video, I feel like I have to do it at this point! It's on my to-do list, thanks again for putting this idea out there as it is an amazing story

[@RossParker1877]

Is this the most successful athlete to medal ratio?

[@voxathletica]

I haven't looked it up, but it sure feels like it

[@colorfulmarbles156]

I’m pretty sure it’s Grenada

[@christianlorre]

No because Liechtenstein has won like 9 or 10 medals over the winter games.

[@AlanFleming7499]

You could probably do a video about their national Football team (or Soccer as you yanks call it!)

[@voxathletica]

Someone else flagged the World Cup and San Marino, so I did quickly look it up. It might be worth a video, you're right

[@sablemariko]

The smallest country to win a medal in the Summer Olympics was Samoa. Ele Opeloge (born July 11, 1985) is a Samoan weightlifter. She was the first Samoan to win an Olympic medal, winning silver in the women's +75 kg category at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

[@voxathletica]

Samoa has a population of over 200,000 people now, and it was around 190,000 people in 2008, so that's much larger than San Marino? Still, congrats to Samoa, many other countries haven't won any!

[@sablemariko]

👍🏽😌

[@RyanSchuckman]

You might consider changing the title to something like “This Tiny Nation has a WILD Olympic History”… I’m ashamed to admit that when I read the title, I didn’t even know San Marino was a country lol

[@voxathletica]

It's a fair point, it's certainly not the most well-known country. I'll keep an eye on performance of the video and potentially adjust, I appreciate the suggestion

[@michaeltnk1135]

I prefer that it’s specific. San Marino is a super interesting country and extremely small, which is what made me click on the video. I don’t think I would’ve clicked on it were it just titled “this small country.” Way more people know about San Marino than you’d think. It’s also a popular tourist destination like Monaco

[@ThePussukka]

Americans 😂😂

[@Pedant_Patrol]

Didn't they win 4?

[@voxathletica]

No, just three at the 2020 games. The single silver and two bronze, still a heck of an accomplishment!

[@twgs60]

@@voxathletica They failed to win any this time around, but were so close to the wrestling bronze... I can definitely see them getting to around 5-6 medals by 2032. I only knew they were a country because of football, where they are yet to win a competitive match!