SALON

Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012 5:45 AM UTC

Tiny nations lead in alternative gold medal count

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Forget about the Olympic medal race between the United States and China. The real action is happening in places like Jamaica, New Zealand and the tiny island nation of Grenada.

At least that’s according to one method for crunching the numbers that’s being promoted by a New Zealand government agency. Since last Thursday, Statistics New Zealand has been posting daily online updates of its “medal strike rate” — the number of gold medals won relative to each country’s population.

On the traditional medal table, China finished ahead after 10 days of competition with 31 golds, while the U.S. was running a close second with 29.

But factor in population, and the U.S. drops to a middle-of-the-pack 23rd, winning one gold medal for every 11 million residents. China, the world’s most populous nation, drops to 36th, with one gold for every 43 million. Among larger nations, Olympic hosts Britain leads, with its 18 golds representing one for every 3.4 million residents.

Many small countries fare even better. New Zealand, population 4.4 million, won three gold medals in rowing, propelling it to the top of the medal-strike table over the weekend. Then Usain Bolt’s spectacular win in the 100 meters put Jamaica on top, with its two golds representing one for every 1.4 million residents.

And then came Grenada. A sensational run Monday by 19-year-old Kirani James in the 400 meters final gave the country its first-ever gold medal and a seemingly unassailable lead on the medal-strike table: one gold for every 109,000 residents (the country’s entire population).

Jo-Anne Skinner, a project manager at Statistics New Zealand, said the alternative rankings have been getting tens of thousands of online hits and have helped generate pride in the country’s Olympic achievements.

“It allows some of the smaller nations to have their day in the sun,” she said.

It’s also generating interest in statistics, she said, with some local academics picking up on the analysis as a teaching tool.

Asked by The Associated Press about the analysis this week, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key joked that he’d be happy to grant residency to Usain Bolt if it would help move New Zealand past Jamaica on the list.

One country that may not want to look at the analysis is India. It hasn’t won any golds yet, but its one silver and two bronzes represent just one medal of any type for every 400 million countrymen.

___

Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

More Nick Perry.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
241 points242 points | 10 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
242 points243 points | 49 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
186 points187 points | 1 comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
54 points55 points | 8 comments
vote
Today in How Did I Miss This: Iowa GOP is pushing to cut the pay of the remaining Supreme Court Justices that voted for legalization of gay marriage.
56 points57 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations