Rugby union at the Summer Olympics Rugby union at the Summer Olympics Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games, being played at four of the first seven competitions. The sport debuted at the 1900 Paris games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured at the London games in 1908, the Antwerp games in 1920 and the Paris games in 1924. The United States is the most successful nation in Olympic rugby tournaments, having won the gold medal in both 1920 and 1924; France has the most medals, one gold (in 1900) and
Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics On 7 August 2012, Great Britain had reached its 48-medal target, and surpassed the 19 gold-medal tally from Beijing, making it the most successful Olympics since 1908. Great Britain left the Summer Olympic Games with a total of 65 medals (29 gold, 17 silver, and 19 bronze), finishing third in the medal table rankings, and fourth in the total number of medal rankings. At least one medal was awarded to Team GB in seventeen sports, eleven of them contained at least one gold. British athletes dominated the medal standings in cycling, wherein they won a total of 12 Olympic medals,