TOKYO — San Marino waited 61 years for its first Olympic medal, which came on Thursday. Then it waited two days for its next one.
San Marino is hardly an athletics powerhouse. Sports fans mostly know it for its forays into European soccer qualifiers, where it nearly always loses, often by scores like 9-0.
But now San Marino has a positive sporting distinction. With a population of roughly 30,000, it is the smallest country to win an Olympic medal, surpassing Bermuda (pop. 70,000).
San Marino first competed at the Olympics in 1960, when a group of nine athletes in cycling, shooting and wrestling placed no higher than 16th.