Information Presentation

Monday, August 18, 2008

Per Capita National Olympic Performance

Of course, the standard medal standings neglect obvious comparative inequities. The most glaring of these are vast differences in national populations. On a per capita basis, the US ranks only #35 in medal performance and China ranks only #53. China's 39 gold medals do represent 21% of the Olympic total. Impressive, until you realize that China has 20% of the world's population. As such, even as home country, it has only won gold in proportion to its population. Its 15% take of total medals is considerably less than its share of world population.

The leading per-capita national showings are Jamaica at #1 and Australia at #3, far outperforming other medals leaders. The strongest regions are eastern Europe with Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Belarus and Hungary in the top 12; and Scandinavia, with three of the region's four countries (Finland, Denmark and Norway) in the top nine.

Rank	Country	Gold	Sil- ver	Bro- nze	Total medals	4-2-1 points	pop (mil)	Gold medals /mil	Total medals /million	421 points /million
1	Jamaica	2	2	0	4	12	3	.737	1.47	4.42
2	Slovenia	1	1	2	4	8	2	.493	1.97	3.94
3	Australia	11	10	12	33	76	21	.514	1.54	3.55
4	Azerbaijan	1	2	2	5	10	3	.333	1.67	3.33
5	Slovakia	3	1	0	4	14	5	.628	.84	2.93
6	Finland	1	1	1	3	7	3	.380	1.14	2.66
7	Denmark	2	1	3	6	13	5	.364	1.09	2.37
8	Canada	2	3	4	9	18	8	.262	1.18	2.36
9	Norway	1	2	2	5	10	4	.227	1.14	2.27
10	Romania	4	1	3	8	21	11	.355	.71	1.86
11	Belarus	1	3	7	11	17	10	.103	1.14	1.75
12	Hungary	0	4	1	5	9	5	.000	.93	1.67
13	Netherlands	3	5	4	12	26	16	.182	.73	1.58
14	Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	0	1	2	1	.000	.75	1.50
15	Estonia	0	1	0	1	2	1	.000	.75	1.49
16	Switzerland	2	0	3	5	11	8	.236	.59	1.30
17	North Korea	2	1	3	6	13	10	.192	.58	1.25
18	Cuba	1	5	5	11	19	15	.065	.71	1.23
19	Panama	1	0	0	1	4	3	.299	.30	1.20
20	Germany	9	7	7	23	57	48	.187	.48	1.18
21	Great Britain	12	7	8	27	70	61	.198	.45	1.16
22	Georgia	2	0	1	3	9	8	.240	.36	1.08
23	Brazil	1	0	5	6	9	10	.100	.60	.90
24	Poland	3	3	1	7	19	21	.140	.33	.89
25	France	4	11	13	28	51	64	.062	.43	.79
26	Mongolia	1	1	0	2	6	8	.131	.26	.79
27	Zimbabwe	1	3	0	4	10	13	.075	.30	.75
28	Ukraine	5	3	8	16	34	46	.109	.35	.74
29	Italy	6	6	6	18	42	60	.101	.30	.70
30	South Korea	8	9	6	23	56	82	.097	.28	.68
31	Croatia	0	1	1	2	3	5	.000	.44	.66
32	Kyrgyzstan	0	1	1	2	3	5	.000	.38	.56
33	New Zealand	2	1	3	6	13	24	.084	.25	.55
34	Turkey	0	2	1	3	5	9	.000	.33	.54
35	United States	22	24	26	72	162	305	.072	.24	.53
36	Russia	8	13	15	36	73	142	.056	.25	.51
37	Austria	0	1	2	3	4	8	.000	.36	.48
38	Singapore	0	1	0	1	2	5	.000	.22	.44
39	Spain	3	3	2	8	20	46	.065	.17	.43
40	Kenya	2	3	2	7	16	38	.053	.19	.43
41	Kazakhstan	1	3	4	8	14	33	.030	.24	.42
42	Tunisia	1	0	0	1	4	10	.097	.10	.39
43	Japan	8	5	7	20	49	128	.063	.16	.38
44	Greece	0	1	2	3	4	11	.000	.27	.36
45	Serbia	0	1	1	2	3	10	.000	.20	.30
46	Lithuania	0	0	1	1	1	3	.000	.30	.30
47	Cameroon	1	0	0	1	4	19	.054	.05	.22
48	Indonesia	1	1	3	5	9	46	.022	.11	.20
49	Portugal	0	1	0	1	2	11	.000	.09	.19
50	Bulgaria	1	1	1	3	7	38	.026	.08	.18
51	Togo	0	0	1	1	1	7	.000	.15	.15
52	Ecuador	0	1	0	1	2	13	.000	.07	.15
53	China	39	14	14	67	198	1,326	.029	.05	.15
54	Tajikistan	0	0	1	1	1	7	.000	.15	.15
55	Uzbekistan	0	1	2	3	4	27	.000	.11	.15
56	Ethiopia	2	1	0	3	10	79	.025	.04	.13
57	Chile	0	1	0	1	2	17	.000	.06	.12
58	Algeria	0	1	1	2	3	34	.000	.06	.09
59	Chinese Taipei	0	0	2	2	2	23	.000	.09	.09
60	Sweden	0	3	0	3	6	71	.000	.04	.09
61	Czech Republic	2	3	0	5	14	187	.011	.03	.07
62	Malaysaia	0	1	0	1	2	27	.000	.04	.07
63	Colombia	0	1	1	2	3	45	.000	.04	.07
64	Thailand	1	0	0	1	4	64	.016	.02	.06
65	South Africa	0	1	0	1	2	48	.000	.02	.04
66	Argentina	0	0	1	1	1	40	.000	.02	.02
67	Vietnam	0	1	0	1	2	87	.000	.01	.02
68	Armenia	0	0	5	5	5	232	.000	.02	.02
69	Egypt	0	0	1	1	1	75	.000	.01	.01
70	Mexico	0	0	1	1	1	107	.000	.01	.01
71	India	1	0	0	1	4	1,137	.001	.00	.00
231	Totals	185	186	209	580	1321	6,671	.028	.09	.20

Current national medal standings @ beijingmedals

For current national Olympic medal standings, go to http://beijingmedals.blogspot.com/

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Olympic Medals by Country 8/17

Rank	COUNTRY	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	4-2-1
1	China	34	13	12	59	174
2	United States	19	21	25	65	143
3	Great Britain	11	6	8	25	64
4	Australia	8	10	11	29	63
5	Russia	7	10	12	29	60
6	South Korea	8	9	5	22	55
7	Germany	9	6	6	21	54
8	Japan	8	5	7	20	49
9	France	4	9	12	25	46
10	Italy	6	6	6	18	42
11	Ukraine	5	3	6	14	32
12	Romania	4	1	3	8	21
13	Netherlands	2	4	4	10	20
14	Spain	3	2	1	6	17
15	Poland	2	3	1	6	15
16	Cuba	1	3	4	8	14
17	Kazakhstan	1	3	4	8	14
18	Canada	2	1	4	7	14
19	Czech Republic	2	3	0	5	14
20	Slovakia	3	1	0	4	14
21	Belarus	0	3	7	10	13
22	North Korea	2	1	3	6	13
23	New Zealand	2	1	2	5	12
24	Switzerland	2	0	3	5	11
25	Azerbaijan	1	2	2	5	10
26	Zimbabwe	1	3	0	4	10
27	Hungary	0	4	1	5	9
28	Indonesia	1	1	3	5	9
29	Norway	1	2	1	4	9
30	Georgia	2	0	1	3	9
31	Brazil	1	0	4	5	8
32	Slovenia	1	1	2	4	8
33	Denmark	1	0	3	4	7
34	Finland	1	1	1	3	7
35	Bulgaria	1	1	1	3	7
36	Sweden	0	3	0	3	6
37	Mongolia	1	1	0	2	6
38	Armenia	0	0	5	5	5
39	Turkey	0	2	1	3	5
40	Austria	0	1	2	3	4
41	Kenya	0	2	0	2	4
42	Tunisia	1	0	0	1	4
43	Jamaica	1	0	0	1	4
44	Thailand	1	0	0	1	4
45	Ethiopia	1	0	0	1	4
46	India	1	0	0	1	4
47	Greece	0	1	1	2	3
48	Croatia	0	1	1	2	3
49	Kyrgyzstan	0	1	1	2	3
50	Serbia	0	1	1	2	3
51	Uzbekistan	0	1	1	2	3
52	Algeria	0	1	1	2	3
53	Colombia	0	1	1	2	3
54	Chinese Taipei	0	0	2	2	2
55	Chile	0	1	0	1	2
56	Malaysaia	0	1	0	1	2
57	Singapore	0	1	0	1	2
58	Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	0	1	2
59	Estonia	0	1	0	1	2
60	Ecuador	0	1	0	1	2
61	Vietnam	0	1	0	1	2
62	Lithuania	0	0	1	1	1
63	Togo	0	0	1	1	1
64	Tajikistan	0	0	1	1	1
65	Argentina	0	0	1	1	1
66	Egypt	0	0	1	1	1
67	Mexico	0	0	1	1	1
		162	162	188	512	1160

Olympic Medal Standings by Country: 4-2-1 Points System

News outlet around the world report Olympic medals by country. One might question the value of such "standings," but given that they are so widely reported and viewed, we might as we do it right.

These standings are invariably reported in one of two ways: (1) By total medals: NBC and most of the US press have been listing nations by order of medals won (perhaps not coincidentally, the US has won the most total medals). (2) By Gold medals: The Chinese and most of the rest of the world lists nations by order of gold medals won (again perhaps not coincidentally, the Chinese have won the most gold medals). But both methods of tabulation are unsatisfactory.

Given that three medals are given for each competition and that winning any Olympic medal is an extraordinary accomplishment, it’s unreasonable to not acknowledge Silver and Bronze performances at all in determining these national standings. On the other hand, Gold is clearly better than Silver, which in turn, is clearly better than Bronze. So how to value each?

Any comparative valuation is somewhat arbitrary, but better some such valuation than the two extant methods. I have chosen here a valuation of 4 points per Gold medal, 2 points per Silver medal and 1 point per Bronze medal. This system values 1st place (Gold) twice as highly as 2nd place (Silver), which in turn we value twice as highly as a 3rd place (Bronze). The primary alternative point evaluations that one might consider are a 5-3-1 valuation (which are common at dual track meets) or a 3-2-1 valuation. The problem with both of these systems is that they comparatively overstate the difference between Silver and Bronze and comparatively understate the difference between Gold and Silver. In a 5-3-1 system Silver would be worth three times Bronze, but Gold would not even be worth two times Silver. If anything the difference between Gold and Silver should be much more substantial than that between Silver and Bronze.So that’s the theory. See the standings at left to see how the nations of the world are faring at these Olympics.