What If Zelda Speedruns Were an Olympic Event?
What if speedrunning became an Olympic sport? As a fan of both the Olympics and The Legend of Zelda speedruns, I decided to combine the two and see how different countries and players would stack up in a 'Speedrunlympics' simulation.
Here's what I discovered after analyzing the leaderboards on Speedrun.com!
For this experiment, I’ve set some arbitrary parameters so it aligns with the spirit of the Olympics and the Zelda speedruns/games.
Rules
- I'm including every Zelda game in the main Zelda series according to Wikipedia. Remakes and remasters are counted with the original game.
- Each included game has at a minimum 2 categories (except Four Swords Adventures, because there is only one official category).
- A category is included if there is at least 50 runners and the goal of the category is to finish the game.
- Categories are picked from official leaderboards on Speedrun.com.
With those rules, let’s travel a bit around 2D & 3D Zeldas, and see what happens overall !
2D Zeldas : 14 Games
3D Zeldas : 7 Games
All Zeldas : 21 Games
The USA stands out with an overwhelming lead in the medal count, showcasing its dominance in Zelda speedrunning. Interestingly, even if we combined the medals from all other countries, the USA would still come out on top in both the 3D and overall Zelda categories!
Following behind, Sweden, France, Japan, and Canada make up the top five, with each earning between 16 and 25 medals. While these countries are often strong contenders in speedrunning, I believe countries like Germany or England could break into the top rankings with other series - something we might see in the future!
I really enjoyed putting this concept together, and it’s exciting to imagine how something like this could one day look in the speedrunning world. For now, I’ll leave you with a few interesting stats about this experiment. I’d love to hear your thoughts - did you enjoy this idea? Is there a specific game series you’d like me to analyze next? I’ve already got a few ideas brewing!
- Number of categories: 72
- Number of medal-winning players: 128
- Game with the most categories: Ocarina of Time (11 categories)
- Game represented by the most countries: Ocarina of Time (8 countries)
- Category with the most runners: Defeat Ganon No SRM (Ocarina of Time) with 1,154 runners
If you want to dive deeper into the data, including the complete standings, categories, and other details, check out the full spreadsheet [here].
Games Included
2D Zelda Games:
Legend of Zelda games included: Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, Four Swords, The Minish Cap, Four Swords Adventures, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, Echoes of Wisdom
3D Zelda Games:
Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom
Following the first post with Zelda games, let's see what a "Speedrunlympics" event would be around the "Super Mario" games.
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