It's that time of the biannum again! The continuing tradition of Cannoli's Obsolete Olympic Medal Count. Way back when the USSR broke up, I remember reading an article about how it would have been the champs of the Olympics in 1992, except for not being a thing anymore. In the interests of personal amusement (amusing Cannoli being pretty much the most worthwhile aspiration for any given concept), I add up the totals of countries which are current fragments of historical polities. The rules for which countries are counted toward which historical entities are "because I said so". They are basically arbitrary, with some attempts at being fair, for certain values of fair. For instance, I refuse to credit the British Empire with the medals of the USA, because King George can go fuck himself, historically speaking, for stuttering while people were being Hitlered, or for speaking German instead of English, or for sending hither swarms of officers to eat out our substance and so forth. And also, because England only ever controlled a tiny fraction of the country, and probably don't deserve credit for the descendants of slaves they imported to North America over the objections of the inhabitants, or the Irish people whose primary motivation for coming to America was "it's not British." But they do get Canada, because, in the immortal words of Dave Barry "Quel enfer. C'est seulement Canada!". See? Nice and simple.

In the past I would try to lay out elaborate justifications to preempt argument, because instructing people on what is right, as defined by me, is a duty and a public service, but on the other hand, why should I have all the fun dredging up historical minutiae solely for the sake of being pedantic? I imagine most of us have similar tendencies that make us insufferable to the people about us, hence our fleeing to the interwebs to find like-minded souls, so nit-pick away!

First up is our host Obsolete Country, the late, unlamented (save possibly by the gentleman who opened the 2014 Games), Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with 46 total medals, including 19 gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze. Surpassing any contemporary nation, having as it did, the actual medal leader, Russia, among its component states, this is not much of a surprise. It more than doubled its total from the last Winter Games, having taken only 22 medals from Vancouver. Despite the great number of fragments into which the USSR split, only a literal handful produced any medals, with Belarus, Kazahstan & Latvia again repeating as contributors, with Ukraine replacing Estonia.

For fellow Eastern Bloc comrade, Yugoslavia, as in 2010, only Croatia & Slovenia medalled. Moving up from Slovenia's 15th place showing, to 13th, with 2 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze, for nine total, beating out their 6 2010. The South Slavs tied China for total medals, but were dropped below them for having fewer golds, and beat out South Korea.

Another Iron Curtain victim, Czechoslovakia, also hit nine total medals (equaling 2010), matching contemporary China exactly, with 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze.

And because I just cannot let the commies get away with a win, I added an overlapping Obsolete entry, Imperial Russia, who beats out their bolshevist successor with 51 total medals, 20 gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze.
I basically took the components of the USSR, and added Finland, since the other former Soviet Republics were also part of the Empire.

A somewhat older sort-of nation that matched the Soviet Union was the Kalmar Union, which IIRC was more of a royal technicality than a traditional nation, but they won as many medals as the commies, so their medal count of 46 stands. They would, unfortunately, rank 2nd to the USSR, having only 14 golds, plus 15 silver and 17 bronze.
Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Beating out all contemporary nations, but not matching the USSR, a sentimental favorite of this contrarian, Catholic, history buff, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, defending champion of the Vancouver Games. The subjects of HI&RAM Karl II won 38 total medals, 11 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze.
The nations used for Austria-Hungary were Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and half of Poland's medals to reflect the Partition. For the record, I took two gold and a bronze from Poland's six medals, because I am not going to go sorting through the bios of Polish medal winners to figure out if they came from Galicia or not. I split all of Poland's medals between Austria and a hypothetical Prussia, giving none to Tsarist Russia, because the Russian Partition is more or less in Belarus anyway. There is also not going to be a Prussian entry in this piece, for obvious historical reasons, akin to the exclusion of the USA from the British Empire. I thought about slicing off a chunk of Italy's medals, but decided to stick with the pre-World War One borders.

Close on the heels of the Dual-Monarchy is the British Empire, with 32 medals in total. Way simpler to compile in the Winter Games due to most of their conquests coming from the warmer latitudes, the flag on which the sun never set showed up on the podium for 11 gold, 13 silver and 8 bronze.
Only Great Britain, Canada and Australia, with Canada supplying the bulk of the medals (10,10,5). As mentioned above, they don't get the USA, because.

Delving back into much older times, we dig up some pretty impressive medal counts, starting with the Roman Empire, which was bolstered by some pretty dubious aquisitions, but I decided what the hell. So for Rome, we have 25 gold, 28 silver and 35 bronze for a grand total of 88 medals.
Italy, of course, plus Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, France, Great Britain and Netherlands. I gave them Britain which includes Scotland because for all intents and purposes it might as well be a part of England. Prior to the union with England, Scotland was a redneck backwater, that only hit their peak of intellectual, economic and industrial development when they began turning more and more English. Setting aside all other population issues of Rome vis a vis the Volkswanderung, most of the Scots who remained in their pre-English mode ended up in Ulster or America anyway. So for all intents and purposes, I think we can safely call it part of the English civilization, which got its start from Rome. So there. And yeah, I gave them the Netherlands. I'm pretty sure Rome penetrated Holland, and that's the only part the rest of the world is even aware of. I said this was arbitrary.

Succeeding the Roman Empire, we have the Kingdom of the Franks, which did them even better, gaining 94 medals, with 30 each of gold and silver and 34 bronze. That's why they got to take over the Imperial title.
France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I figure the various successors to the Western Empire's area of influence consisted of the real Italy anyway. The Two Sicilies are really just baptized Arabs, who were considered a seperate nationality in US census figures, by demand of the northern Italians. So as the Romans get the parts of Britain even where their rule did not technically extend, so do the Franks get the parts of Italy where Clovis or Charlemagne & co never quite poked their noses. Normans wrested them back from the Muslims anyway.

A new entry this year, is the Realm of Canute the Great, the Viking king who ruled England and Scandinavia and allegedly demonstrated the limits of government authority to his court by ordering the tide to cease. So we're talking cool on multiple levels. He would have 45 medals, 14 gold, 13 silver and 18 bronze, from Norway, Sweden and England. He also ruled Denmark, but they didn't make it this year, apparently.

A final, personal coalition is Cannolistan, comprising the countries of my own ethnic ancestry, which took home an impressive 62 medals, close behind the Franks and the Romans. That was 22 gold, 18 silver and 22 bronze.
Germany, Switzerland, Italy & Netherlands. And yes, at home while growing up, around the pool, we flew the flags of all our countries, including Ireland, along with the American & Vatican flags. Fun family anecdote: We (my parents & siblings) showed up at a family reunion of the Swiss branch, which used to hold them anually, with a red shirt/white pants dress code. We walked in carrying our Swiss flag, only to be asked by a depressing number of our red-and-white-clad kinfolk if the flag indicated we were supplying first aid for the event. It's not even a RED cross, it's a white cross on red. I guess that's what happens when you don't get enough German-Irish blood...

Honorary Bonus Entry:
Under protest, but bowing to popular demand, I also include the Mongol Empire. I have been hesitant to include it in past compilations for a few reasons. First of all, the various subdivisions under various Hordes raise some doubt of whether it should all really be considered one empire. I tend to suspect it might be something of an exaggeration that gets so much press because the various the Mongols passed through and terrorized cover such a widespread area, and it looks so impressive on a map. Given that what civilization existed under Mongol rule tended to absorb them, rather than being transformed into a Mongol civilzation, I think that Kublai Khan and the Yuan dynasty were more culturally Chinese with Mongol ancestry, than Mogolians imposing their civilization on the Chinese. Much of their influence on the nations included in their medal count, for example, is external, for lack of a better term. That is, it was not things the Mongols did that affected the countries, but things those people did in reaction to the Mongols. I would call most of these countries closer to client states or protectorates, rather than subject provinces of an Empire. Whatever they might have been called, I think that better describes their relationship with their Mongol overlords, from my admittedly cursory awareness of the subject. Much more importantly, a bunch of these countries were not added until after the death of Genghis Khan, and it was with his death that they began splitting up, so the question of whether Belarus and Ukraine were part of the same Empire as China & Korea is somewhat debatable, IMO.

But going by the countries that were under Mongol power, they get 59 medals, 25 gold, 18 silver and 16 bronze. Beating the more recent Obsolete Empires, though not really challenging Cannolistan or the Romans and Franks.
I gave them Russia, China, South Korea, Belarus, Ukraine & Kazakhstan, of the countries that won medals.