The Olympics: A Slightly Different View
Created | Updated Aug 26, 2012
Rod has been thinking about the recent Olympics.
A Slightly Different View
Cynical about The Olympics? Yeah me too, though I must admit it had great attraction and spellbinding moments (more, probably, if I'd watched more).
Perusing the medal tables gave pause – how many of us are world-class? (in anything, really – but sport's been the thing of the moment).
One-in-a-million?
Well, in some places maybe.
Olympically, the top ten countries (all medals) were:
| Country | Total Medals | Population |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 104 | 314M |
| China | 88 | 1,350M |
| Russia | 82 | 143M |
| Britain | 65 | 62M |
| Germany | 44 | 82M |
| Japan | 38 | 128M |
| Australia | 35 | 23M |
| France | 34 | 65M |
| South Korea | 28 | 50M |
| Italy | 28 | 61M |
Now, if we look at those medals and those populations and rearrange the list according to population per medal...
{the figures are approximate, of course, so don't complain}
| Country | Population | Medals | People/Medal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 23M | 35 | 650,000 |
| Britain | 62M | 65 | 1,000,000 |
| Russia | 143M | 82 | 1,700,000 |
| Germany | 82M | 44 | 1,800,000 |
| South Korea | 50M | 28 | 1,800,000 |
| France | 65M | 34 | 1,900,000 |
| Italy | 61M | 28 | 2,000,000 |
| USA | 314M | 104 | 3,000,000 |
| Japan | 128M | 38 | 3,400,000 |
| China | 1,350M | 88 | 15,000,000 |
Looks a bit different, eh? – but that's looking at only the "Top Ten" in the medals table. Doing more calculations would change that leaderboard, wouldn't it?
What do you think?
{whisper} and there's another country you've heard of now and then...
