France projected to nearly triple its gold medal haul at Paris Olympic 2024

Host nation France is projected to almost triple its gold medal total at the Paris 2024 Olympics from the 10 won at the Tokyo 2020 Games while also significantly increasing its overall medal haul, according to data company Nielsen Gracenote. France is predicted to win 28 gold medals, 19 silver and eight bronze.

The United States is expected to top the overall medal table again with 123, 10 more than it won in Tokyo. Athletics and swimming will remain key to that success, the data company said. Asian powerhouse China is projected to stay second with 89 again and closely challenge the US for the most gold medals. Britain is placed third on 66 medals, two more than it won in Tokyo.

Australia is predicted to have its best performance since the Athens 2004 Olympics with 50 medals, the gains coming from the swimming team. Russia, who finished fifth in Tokyo, was not part of the top 10, which also included Japan in sixth spot followed by Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and South Korea.

Relations between Russia and the International Olympic Committee have worsened in the run-up to the Paris Games, which start on July 26, where Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete as neutrals, without their flags and anthems, and be excluded from the opening parade, because of the war in Ukraine.

"Almost all Russian and Belarusian competitors have been absent from international competitions since February 2022," Gracenote said, releasing its final 'Virtual Medal Table' forecast on Wednesday.

"Any who take part in Paris 2024 without results in this period cannot be predicted accurately. "However, it appears that there will be limited participation of these athletes and we expect the Virtual Medal Table to be the usual accurate reflection of the NOCs (National Olympic Committees) based on the data that we have."

Following are the countries ranked from one to 10 on the Virtual Medal Table by Nielsen Gracenote:

National Gold Silver Bronze Total Olympic Committees United States 39 37 47 123 China 35 30 24 89 Britain 13 23 30 66 France 28 19 8 55 Australia 13 19 18 50 Japan 13 16 20 49 Italy 12 20 15 47 Netherlands 18 5 15 38 Germany 9 13 14 36 South Korea 9 4 11 24.