According to the medal table based on gold medals won - Britain came 4th. The final Gold table was as follows:
1. China 51 Gold Medals
2. USA 36
3. Russia 23
4. Great Britain 19
5. Germany 16
The calulation should in my opinion be a ratio to the population for all the large industrialised nations - in which case the Olympic top five would be:
1. Great Britian 19 Golds divided by 61 million = 3.1 gold medal per 10m population
2. Germany as above - 82m people = 1.95 per 10m population
3. Russia still 3rd with 141m people = 1.63 per 10m population
4. USA with 305m people = 1.18 per 10m population
5. China with 1,325m people = 0.007 per 10m population
We as a Nation are therefore head and shoulders in front of the rest.
Well done team GB.
3 comments:
:)
okay..if you say so.
I think it a much fairer appraisal and takes into consideration the overwelming odds agains smaller nations. I am of course open to alternative views and ideas :)
Dumb!
Why not divide by GNP, or maybe by GNP per capita?
We have to recognise China did remarkably well coming from nowhere. On the other hand they probably used the same techniques as the old East Germany (and they are believed to have employed some of their coaches).
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