Behind the glamour and prestige of Olympic medals are secrets about their creation, cost, and worth. We've uncovered them just in time for the 2026 Winter Games.

But, a handful of countries are surprising analysts and ranking higher than expected. One of those countries is Japan, which sits at No. 10 in the medal count as of the end of the Games on Thursday. Another one is Australia, which only has one lone gold medal, but that still puts them at No. 14 on the ranking.