From The Wall Street Journal, "The ‘Never Won a Medal’ Club Gets a Bit Smaller" on 12 August 2012, by Joel Millman -- Of the 204 countries participating in the 2012 Olympics, 80 had never won any medal. But the “never won a medal” club shrunk by at least five countries, as nations whose names begin with “G” did surprising well in London. Guatemala, Gabon and Grenada struck Olympic ore for the first time, as did Cyprus and Botswana.
A slightly smaller group—just 20 countries—had medaled only once. That cadre shrunk as well as Kuwait, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Bahrain all returned to the medals podium.
Olympian Erick Barrondo made Guatemala proud after winning a silver medal in the 20-kilometer walk at the 2012 London Olympics
Of course, nit-pickers can quibble about how authentic these “firsts” really are. Pavlos Kontides earned a silver for Cyprus in sailing, but some would argue he isn’t the first Cypriot to medal. At the 1896 Athens Games, Ioannis Fragkoudis, who was born in Cyprus, and won gold, silver and bronze medals for shooting.
Pavlos Kontides won Cyprus` first medal at an Olympics when he took the silver Monday in sailing`s Laser class.
Stavros Michaelides, the public relations and marketing officer for Cyprus’ National Olympic Committee, said Fragkoudis actually represented Greece in 1896 and not Cyprus, which didn’t become independent until 1960. Since 1974, the island has been divided between the Turkish-speaking North and the Greek-speaking South, but has only been going to the Olympics as a single entity since 1980.
Anthony Obame became the first athlete from Gabon to earn an Olympic medal, doing so in the men's heavyweight division in taekwondo.
“As you know The Republic of Cyprus is the only recognized state by the United Nations and the International Olympics Committee,” Mr. Michaelides wrote in an email. “Most of our athletes are Greek/Cypriots and they speak Greek. Turkish/Cypriot athletes are free to join the Cyprus National team if they are good enough to qualify. Most of the time this doesn’t happen due to qualification standards or other reasons (political).”
Then there’s Bahrain, which technically joined the first-timers club in Beijing four years ago, only to have its bronze-medal winner, runner Rashid Ramzi, stripped of his medal for doping. Ramzi, a Morroccan by birth, competed as a Bahrainian thanks to a job with the kingdom’s Royal Palace Guard.
World champion Kirani James wins Grenada's first ever Olympic gold medal with a stunning 400m victory at London 2012.
In London, Bahrain’s MaryamYusuf Jamal won bronze in the women‘s 1500 meters. Jamal was born in Ethiopia.
Qatar, on the other hand, erased the taint of enlisting foreign-born athletes in its medals chase. Since 1992, Qatar had won two medals, in track and weightlifting, one with a runner born in Somalia and the other with a power lifter, Said Saif Assad, who had been born in Bulgaria and changed his name from Angel Popov.
Silver medalist Nijel Amos of Botswana
Although Nigerian-born runner Femi Ogunode failed to medal for Qatar, the country won two medals with athletes who both were born in Doha, the tiny nation’s largest city. Mutaz Essa Barshim, a Qatari of Sudanese ancestry, won a bronze in the high jump. His countryman, Nasser Al-Attiyah, took a bronze for clay-pigeon shooting. Al-Attiyah also competes as a rally driver, last year winning the famous Paris to Dakar, Senegal rally across West Africa. (source: The Wall Street Journal)
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