Olympic Medal Count

 

My Dog's Bigger Than Your Dog

My dog's bigger than your dog,
My dog's bigger than yours,
My dog's bigger
And he chases mailmen
My dog's bigger than yours.

Do the Olympics “prove” that my country is better than yours?

The Olympic medal count can be viewed in numerous ways.  Countries should not be ranked by medal count, but its is hard to prevent that.  I remember when my sons were first playing Little League, score was not kept in any game, but if you wanted to know the “score” just ask any of the Little Leaguers who were playing.

If countries are to be ranked, there are a variety of ways by which score can be kept by country.  One way is to count the number of Gold Medals.  By that tally, as of the morning of August 5^th, the People’s Republic of China was in first place with 34 Gold medal to second place United States of America with 29 medals.  However the United States ranks by total medals: Gold, Silver and Bronze, and by that count the United States ranks first with 91 medals compared to China’s 74 medals.  However Gold Medals are worth more than Silver or Bronze medals.  If  Gold Medals are worth 3 points, Silver Medals are worth 2 points and Bronze Medals are worth 1 point, then the United States is in first place with 184 and China is in second place with 166 points.

 However the number of “points” you receive is dependent on the number of chances you had to win “points”.  Some countries did not compete for certain medals so their points are low.   I can’t find the number of medals that could have been earned by country, but it seems fairer to rank countries by their efficiency, how many points they won compared to the potential points they could have won.  The problem with efficiency is that a country may have only competed in events it was likely to win, and that would would unfairly boost the country’s efficiency.

Another way to rank countries is by dividing the points earned by the country’s size.  But what do you use for size?  Population?   On that basis San Marino with 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Medal with a population of only 33,731 would be first.  GDP? On that basis San Marino would also rank first because its GDP is only $1.6 trillion. But fielding an Olympic Team is from surplus wealth not from necessity.  Points per mean or median wealth?  On that basis Russia would rank first according to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Data Book, but to be fair a number of counties with medals are not included in the Global Wealth Data Book.

How should countries that are part of other countries be ranked?  E.g. China Taipei (Taiwan)? Puerto Rico?  How should countries which are banned from competing, like Russia, be ranked?

Since the focus of the Olympics is supposed to be the competitors not their country, maybe keeping score by country is NOT in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics.