On a per capita basis, the best performing nation in the 2008 Olympics was – by far – Jamaica. Despite a population of only 2.7 million people, Jamaicans won six gold medals. No other nation had close to one gold per million, except for Bahrain a small nation which won a single gold. #2 was Jamaica’s Caribbean neighbor, Bahamas. Among the medals leaders, Australia (46 total medals) did best at #7 per capita.
Although China won more gold than any other country, it earned only .04 gold medals per million people. Jamaicans traveling from the far side of the planet bested the home country by a ratio of 60:1! Overall, it came in at only #64. The US, despite the greatest combination of wealth and infrastructure was hardly outstanding either, ranking only #43 overall. Although the US won more medals (110) than any other country, its .36 medals per million people is not even in the same league as the per-capita leaders.
The prize for the best performing region goes to the Caribbean. In addition to Jamaica and Bahamas, the largest Caribbean country, Cuba, also did very well – #11 per capita (Cuba’s 41 medals represent 2.1 medals per million people, 6 times the US medals rate) and Trinidad and Tobago #15. The two other very strong regions were Australia (#7)/New Zealand (#10), and northernmost Europe (Iceland #3, Norway #5, Estonia #9 Latvia #14 Denmark # 16 and Lithuania #19, as well as the Netherlands #17, Great Britain #21 and Finland #27).
1 comment:
Great analysis. Nice table in the previous post.
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