Olympics in Athens 2004: The real medal count

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Olympics in Athens 2004: The real medal count

When journalists decide if their home country has been successful or not at the Olympics, they usually refer to the ranking in the official medals table as published by the IOC or the organizers at http://www.athens2004.com/en/OlympicMedals/medals .

According to that ranking the US did best, China second best and so on. The usual suspects appear on top, Australia, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea follow.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States 35 39 29 103
2 China 32 17 14 63
3 Russia 27 27 37 91
4 Australia 17 16 16 49
5 Japan 16 9 12 37
6 Germany 14 16 18 48
7 France 11 9 13 33
8 Italy 10 11 12 33
9 Korea, South 9 12 9 30
10 United Kingdom (Great Britain) 9 9 11 29
11 Cuba 9 7 11 27
12 Ukraine 9 4 10 23
13 Hungary 8 7 3 18
14 Romania 8 5 6 19
15 Greece 6 6 4 16
16 Norway 5 0 1 6
17 Netherlands 4 9 9 22
18 Brazil 4 3 3 10
19 Sweden 4 1 2 7
20 Spain 3 11 5 19
21 Canada 3 6 3 12
22 Turkey 3 3 4 10
23 Poland 3 2 5 10
24 New Zealand 3 2 0 5
25 Thailand 3 1 4 8
26 Belarus 2 6 7 15
27 Austria 2 4 1 7
28 Ethiopia 2 3 2 7
29 Slovakia 2 2 2 6
30 Iran 2 2 2 6
31 Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) 2 2 1 5
32 Georgia 2 2 0 4
33 Bulgaria 2 1 9 12
34 Jamaica 2 1 2 5
35 Uzbekistan 2 1 2 5
36 Morocco 2 1 0 3
37 Denmark 2 0 6 8
38 Argentina 2 0 4 6
39 Chile 2 0 1 3
40 Kazakhstan 1 4 3 8
41 Kenya 1 4 2 7
42 Czech Republic 1 3 4 8
43 South Africa 1 3 2 6
44 Croatia 1 2 2 5
45 Lithuania 1 2 0 3
46 Switzerland 1 1 3 5
47 Egypt 1 1 3 5
48 Indonesia 1 1 2 4
49 Zimbabwe 1 1 1 3
50 Azerbaijan 1 0 4 5
51 Belgium 1 0 2 3
52 Bahamas, The 1 0 1 2
53 Israel 1 0 1 2
54 United Arab Emirates 1 0 0 1
55 Ireland 1 0 0 1
56 Dominican Republic 1 0 0 1
57 Cameroon 1 0 0 1
58 Korea, North (DPR of Korea) 0 4 1 5
59 Latvia 0 4 0 4
60 Mexico 0 3 1 4
61 Portugal 0 2 1 3
62 Finland 0 2 0 2
63 Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) 0 2 0 2
64 Slovenia 0 1 3 4
65 Estonia 0 1 2 3
66 Paraguay 0 1 0 1
67 Hong Kong 0 1 0 1
68 India 0 1 0 1
69 Venezuela 0 0 2 2
70 Nigeria 0 0 2 2
71 Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 1 1
72 Mongolia 0 0 1 1
73 Eritrea 0 0 1 1
74 Syria 0 0 1 1
75 Colombia 0 0 1 1
2   301 301 327 9291

1 There are more bronze medals than gold or silver because in boxing there are two bronze medals per 1 gold medal to avoid the "small final" due to the compressed schedule.

2 I have not included those countries that did not win at least one medal.

BUT ... does this reflect a true picture of the situation of sports in the respective countries, or are we comparing apples and oranges?

Let's see.

Even though it is great that the US ends up on top of the list, it is obvious that since there are more people in the US than in, let's say Mongolia, the population factor has not been taken into account.

Also, since not all countries have a fair chance of winning a medal because there is a war at home or a sport is just not an issue, I take as a base for all calculations those 75 countries that actually won a medal.

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Ranking by Medals per Capita

This looks already very different. Suddenly the Bahamas are the top sports country in the world, followed closely by the Australians.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Population Inhabitants per Medal
1 Bahamas, The 1 0 1 2 299,697 149,849
2 Australia 17 16 16 49 19,913,144 406,391
3 Cuba 9 7 11 27 11,308,764 418,843
4 Estonia 0 1 2 3 1,341,664 447,221
5 Slovenia 0 1 3 4 2,011,473 502,868
6 Jamaica 2 1 2 5 2,713,130 542,626
7 Hungary 8 7 3 18 10,032,375 557,354
8 Latvia 0 4 0 4 2,306,306 576,577
9 Bulgaria 2 1 9 12 7,517,973 626,498
10 Greece 6 6 4 16 10,647,529 665,471
11 Denmark 2 0 6 8 5,413,392 676,674
12 Belarus 2 6 7 15 10,310,520 687,368
13 Netherlands 4 9 9 22 16,318,199 741,736
14 Norway 5 0 1 6 4,574,560 762,427
15 New Zealand 3 2 0 5 3,993,817 798,763
16 Croatia 1 2 2 5 4,496,869 899,374
17 Slovakia 2 2 2 6 5,423,567 903,928
18 Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 1 1 1,096,585 1,096,585
19 Austria 2 4 1 7 8,174,762 1,167,823
20 Georgia 2 2 0 4 4,693,892 1,173,473
21 Romania 8 5 6 19 22,355,551 1,176,608
22 Lithuania 1 2 0 3 3,607,899 1,202,633
23 Czech Republic 1 3 4 8 10,246,178 1,280,772
24 Sweden 4 1 2 7 8,986,400 1,283,771
25 Switzerland 1 1 3 5 7,450,867 1,490,173
26 Azerbaijan 1 0 4 5 7,868,385 1,573,677
27 Russia 27 27 37 91 143,782,338 1,580,026
28 Korea, South 9 12 9 30 48,598,175 1,619,939
29 Germany 14 16 18 48 82,424,609 1,717,179
30 Italy 10 11 12 33 58,057,477 1,759,317
31 France 11 9 13 33 60,424,213 1,831,037
32 Kazakhstan 1 4 3 8 15,143,704 1,892,963
33 Ukraine 9 4 10 23 47,732,079 2,075,308
34 United Kingdom (Great Britain) 9 9 11 29 60,270,708 2,078,300
35 Spain 3 11 5 19 40,280,780 2,120,041
36 United Arab Emirates 1 0 0 1 2,523,915 2,523,915
37 Finland 0 2 0 2 5,214,512 2,607,256
38 Canada 3 6 3 12 32,507,874 2,708,990
39 Mongolia 0 0 1 1 2,751,314 2,751,314
40 United States 35 39 29 103 293,027,571 2,844,928
41 Israel 1 0 1 2 6,199,008 3,099,504
42 Japan 16 9 12 37 127,333,002 3,441,432
43 Belgium 1 0 2 3 10,348,276 3,449,425
44 Portugal 0 2 1 3 10,524,145 3,508,048
45 Poland 3 2 5 10 38,626,349 3,862,635
46 Ireland 1 0 0 1 3,969,558 3,969,558
47 Zimbabwe 1 1 1 3 12,671,860 4,223,953
48 Eritrea 0 0 1 1 4,447,307 4,447,307
49 Korea, North (DPR of Korea) 0 4 1 5 22,697,553 4,539,511
50 Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) 2 2 1 5 22,749,838 4,549,968
51 Kenya 1 4 2 7 32,021,856 4,574,551
52 Chile 2 0 1 3 15,823,957 5,274,652
53 Uzbekistan 2 1 2 5 26,410,416 5,282,083
54 Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) 0 2 0 2 10,825,900 5,412,950
55 Paraguay 0 1 0 1 6,191,368 6,191,368
56 Argentina 2 0 4 6 39,144,753 6,524,126
57 Hong Kong 0 1 0 1 6,855,125 6,855,125
58 Turkey 3 3 4 10 68,893,918 6,889,392
59 South Africa 1 3 2 6 42,718,530 7,119,755
60 Thailand 3 1 4 8 64,865,523 8,108,190
61 Dominican Republic 1 0 0 1 8,833,634 8,833,634
62 Ethiopia 2 3 2 7 67,851,281 9,693,040
63 Morocco 2 1 0 3 32,209,101 10,736,367
64 Iran 2 2 2 6 67,503,205 11,250,534
65 Venezuela 0 0 2 2 25,017,387 12,508,694
66 Egypt 1 1 3 5 76,117,421 15,223,484
67 Cameroon 1 0 0 1 16,063,678 16,063,678
68 Syria 0 0 1 1 18,016,874 18,016,874
69 Brazil 4 3 3 10 184,101,109 18,410,111
70 China 32 17 14 63 1,298,847,624 20,616,629
71 Mexico 0 3 1 4 104,959,594 26,239,899
72 Colombia 0 0 1 1 42,310,775 42,310,775
73 Indonesia 1 1 2 4 238,452,952 59,613,238
74 Nigeria 0 0 2 2 137,253,133 68,626,567
75 India 0 1 0 1 1,065,070,607 1,065,070,607
  301 301 327 929 5,041,769,384  

This ranking values gold, silver and bronze equally so far, so why don't we take into consideration that the respective medals should be ranked in ordinal order.

For the lack of a better, more sophisticated system, let's rank gold medals 3 times higher than bronze and silver 2 times higher than bronze.

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The result is the following table.

Ranking by Weighted Medals per Capita

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Population Value
Gold=3
Silver=2
Bronze=1		 Inhabitants per Weighted
Medals
1 Bahamas, The 1 0 1 2 299,697 4 74924
2 Australia 17 16 16 49 19,913,144 99 201143
3 Cuba 9 7 11 27 11,308,764 52 217476
4 Hungary 8 7 3 18 10,032,375 41 244692
5 Jamaica 2 1 2 5 2,713,130 10 271313
6 Norway 5 0 1 6 4,574,560 16 285910
7 Latvia 0 4 0 4 2,306,306 8 288288
8 New Zealand 3 2 0 5 3,993,817 13 307217
9 Greece 6 6 4 16 10,647,529 34 313163
10 Estonia 0 1 2 3 1,341,664 4 335416
11 Slovenia 0 1 3 4 2,011,473 5 402295
12 Belarus 2 6 7 15 10,310,520 25 412421
13 Netherlands 4 9 9 22 16,318,199 39 418415
14 Bulgaria 2 1 9 12 7,517,973 17 442234
15 Denmark 2 0 6 8 5,413,392 12 451116
16 Slovakia 2 2 2 6 5,423,567 12 451964
17 Georgia 2 2 0 4 4,693,892 10 469389
18 Croatia 1 2 2 5 4,496,869 9 499652
19 Lithuania 1 2 0 3 3,607,899 7 515414
20 Austria 2 4 1 7 8,174,762 15 544984
21 Romania 8 5 6 19 22,355,551 40 558889
22 Sweden 4 1 2 7 8,986,400 16 561650
23 Czech Republic 1 3 4 8 10,246,178 13 788168
24 Korea, South 9 12 9 30 48,598,175 60 809970
25 Russia 27 27 37 91 143,782,338 172 835944
26 United Arab Emirates 1 0 0 1 2,523,915 3 841305
27 Germany 14 16 18 48 82,424,609 92 895920
28 Italy 10 11 12 33 58,057,477 64 907148
29 Switzerland 1 1 3 5 7,450,867 8 931358
30 France 11 9 13 33 60,424,213 64 944128
31 Ukraine 9 4 10 23 47,732,079 45 1060713
32 United Kingdom (Great Britain) 9 9 11 29 60,270,708 56 1076263
33 Kazakhstan 1 4 3 8 15,143,704 14 1081693
34 Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 1 1 1,096,585 1 1096585
35 Spain 3 11 5 19 40,280,780 36 1118911
36 Azerbaijan 1 0 4 5 7,868,385 7 1124055
37 Finland 0 2 0 2 5,214,512 4 1303628
38 Ireland 1 0 0 1 3,969,558 3 1323186
39 Canada 3 6 3 12 32,507,874 24 1354495
40 United States 35 39 29 103 293,027,571 212 1382206
41 Israel 1 0 1 2 6,199,008 4 1549752
42 Japan 16 9 12 37 127,333,002 78 1632474
43 Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) 2 2 1 5 22,749,838 11 2068167
44 Belgium 1 0 2 3 10,348,276 5 2069655
45 Portugal 0 2 1 3 10,524,145 5 2104829
46 Zimbabwe 1 1 1 3 12,671,860 6 2111977
47 Poland 3 2 5 10 38,626,349 18 2145908
48 Chile 2 0 1 3 15,823,957 7 2260565
49 Kenya 1 4 2 7 32,021,856 13 2463220
50 Korea, North (DPR of Korea) 0 4 1 5 22,697,553 9 2521950
51 Uzbekistan 2 1 2 5 26,410,416 10 2641042
52 Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) 0 2 0 2 10,825,900 4 2706475
53 Mongolia 0 0 1 1 2,751,314 1 2751314
54 Dominican Republic 1 0 0 1 8,833,634 3 2944545
55 Paraguay 0 1 0 1 6,191,368 2 3095684
56 Hong Kong 0 1 0 1 6,855,125 2 3427563
57 Turkey 3 3 4 10 68,893,918 19 3625996
58 South Africa 1 3 2 6