Lago Peñas, IgnacioLago Peñas, Carlos2025-05-302025-05-302025Lago I, Lago-Peñas C. With a little kelp from my friends? Understanding individual and team success in the Summer Olympics. Social Science Quarterly. 2025 May;106(3):e70026. DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.700261540-6237http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70574Objective This paper investigates the determinants of Olympic success, examining why some countries excel in individual sports while others perform better in team sports. We propose three explanations: (1) a multiplicative effect, where success in individual sports boosts team sport performance; (2) the influence of collectivist cultures, which favor team sports; and (3) a contingent perspective, where economic development and population size enhance the effects of collectivism. Methods We use data from three Summer Olympic Games (2016-2024): Rio de Janeiro (2016), Tokyo (2021), and Paris (2024), and run ordinary least squares regressions to test the hypotheses. Results Economic development and population size are stronger predictors of success in sports with more talented participants. Collectivism boosts team sports performance in economically developed, highly populated countries, with minimal effect in less developed countries. Conclusion The findings offer policy insights for governments to optimize Olympic preparation strategies and improve medal chances.application/pdfeng© 2025 The Author(s). Social Science Quarterly published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Southwestern Social Science Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.info:eu-repo/semantics/article2025-05-30http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.70026CollectivismIndividual sportsOlympic successTeam sportsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess