List of Olympic medalists in baseball

Cuba had boycotted the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, missing the previous exhibition baseball tournaments, but entered in 1992 as the favorite, having won the past 12 world championships and with a 62–1 record in international competitions since 1986.

[9] In 2005, the IOC investigated the addition of sports to the Olympic schedule including golf, rugby sevens, and karate.

[11] Baseball was still played at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, however, and the South Korean team beat Cuba to claim their first gold medal in the event.

As a result, the Americans and other nations where professional baseball is developed relied on collegiate players, while Cubans used their most experienced veterans, who technically were considered amateurs as they nominally held other jobs, but in fact trained full-time.

The IOC cited the absence of the best players as the main reason for baseball being dropped from the Olympic program.

[21] From the 25 athletes who won two medals in baseball, 18 were Cuban, while the remaining seven included 4 South Korean and 3 Japanese players.

A dark-skinned man in a black baseball cap and black leather jacket holding up both his hands with his index fingers extended. He is holding a cigar in his right hand.
Orlando Hernández won gold with the Cuban team in the 1992 Summer Olympics, baseball's first appearance as an Olympic medal sport.
A man in a blue batting helmet with a "C" on it, blue baseball jersey, white pinstriped pants, and a shin-guard on his right shin stands at home plate holding a baseball bat in a left-handed batting stance with his right foot lifted off of the ground.
Japanese player Kosuke Fukudome won silver in 1996 and bronze in 2004, one of seven non-Cuban players to win multiple medals in baseball.
A man in a white baseball jersey with "KOREA" on the chest in blue and "17" on his leg in orange pitches a baseball from the pitcher's mound with his left hand. He is wearing a black baseball glove on his right hand.
Kim Kwang-Hyun won gold with South Korea in 2008, Korea's second medal finish in baseball.