Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Olympics corner: Smallest country to win (summer) gold

Olympics corner: Smallest country to win (summer) gold

Flora Duffy of Bermuda holds national flag as she celebrates victory.

REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
Make us preferred on Google

Now that the Tokyo Olympics are finally underway, your Signal crew will be bringing you some intriguing, uplifting, and quirky facts about the Games that have many people on edge.

Today — what's the smallest country (by population) to win a gold medal in a summer Olympics?


Answer: Bermuda.

The island nation (population 63,000) erupted in joy on Tuesday when Flora Duffy won the women's triathlon in Tokyo. She smoked her rivals by finishing over a minute ahead of the second-place finisher.

"I think the whole of Bermuda is going crazy," said the 33-year-old Duffy, who as a teenager turned down the opportunity to compete for the UK, the former colonial power.

Fun fact #1: The 51-km (31.7-mile) triathlon event course is longer than the distance from end to end of Bermuda.

Fun fact #2: The least populated country to win gold at a winter Olympics is... Liechtenstein in 1980 (current population 39,000).

More For You

A princess among men
Will Fitzpatrick
No, the change wasn’t a publicity stunt for the newly announced Princess Diaries 3. On Saturday, Liechtenstein’s hereditary prince announced that the tiny country of around 40,000 people would end male-only succession and adopt firstborn inheritance, opening the door for the first woman to lead the monarchy since the House of Liechtenstein was [...]
​U.S. Army soldiers take part in a U.S.-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise.

U.S. Army soldiers take part in a U.S.-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise, which is a part of the annual Freedom Shield joint military training, near the demilitarized zone separating South and North Korea, in Yeoncheon, South Korea, March 14, 2026.

REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon
Trump puts another dent in US-South Korea relationsPresident Donald Trump announced Sunday that the US would scale back future joint military exercises with South Korea, just as the allies’ annual August drills kicked off today. In a Truth Social post, Trump cited his “good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said Seoul had [...]
Mexico’s newest export boom
Natalie Johnson
Mexico’s top export to the US might surprise you. For decades, cars dominated trade, but computer servers have taken the top spot, according to a Financial Times analysis. Over the past year, Mexico has rapidly increased exports to the US of servers used in AI data centers. As in the auto industry, many core components come from Asia, particularly [...]
A person casts a vote at a polling station during Zambia's general elections, including a presidential election, in Lusaka, Zambia.

A person casts a vote at a polling station during Zambia's general elections, including a presidential election, in Lusaka, Zambia, August 13, 2026.

REUTERS/Jean Mandela
Zambians want their slice of the copper piePolls closed in Zambia’s presidential election on Thursday as voters in one of Africa’s most stable democracies weighed whether the country’s economic turnaround has actually affected their wallets. President Hakainde Hichilema, who is seeking a second term, has overseen a successful debt restructuring, [...]