"When anyone tells me I can't do anything, I'm just not listening any more."
- Florence Griffith Joyner (American Gold Medalist in Track, 1988)

2012 London Summer Olympics

Some Stats for 2012

Source for 2012 Medal counts: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/medals.html

Download an Excel file containing all of the statistics on this and related pages here.

Typical Presentation of Medal Standings

2000 to 2008 Summer Olympic Medals

Have you ever looked at the Olympic Medal Standings and wondered why certain countries are always at the top of the standings? Take a look at the following tables, showing the top 10 Medal winners in the Summer Olympic Games from 2000 to 2008 (source: Wikipedia). The number of Gold Medals won by each country is in the G column; the number of silver medals is in the S column; the number of Bronze Medals is in the B column; the total number of Medals is in the Tot column.

Note: you can click on the hyperlink in the 2000 to 2008 Medals tables to see a table in Wikipedia that includes all countries, not just the top 10. Data for all countries is also provided in the Excel file mentioned above.

2000 Summer Olympics - Sydney 2004 Summer Olympics - Athens 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing
    G S B Tot     G S B Tot     G S B Tot
1
United States
37
24
33
94
1
United States
35
40
26
101
1
United States
36
38
36
110
2
Russia
32
28
29
89
2
Russia
28
26
38
92
2
China
51
21
28
100
3
China
28
16
14
58
3
China
32
17
14
63
3
Russia
23
21
28
72
4
Australia
16
25
17
58
4
Australia
17
16
17
50
4
Great Britain
19
13
15
47
5
Germany
13
17
26
56
5
Germany
13
16
20
49
5
Australia
14
15
17
46
6
France
13
14
11
38
6
Japan
16
9
12
37
6
Germany
16
10
15
41
7
Italy
13
8
13
34
7
France
11
9
13
33
7
France
7
16
18
41
8
Cuba
11
11
7
29
8
Italy
10
11
11
32
8
South Korea
13
10
8
31
9
Great Britain
11
10
7
28
9
South Korea
9
12
9
30
9
Italy
8
9
10
27
10
South Korea
8
10
10
28
10
Great Britain
9
9
12
30
10
Ukraine
7
5
15
27

Why do the many of the same countries show up year after year? Clearly, it has something to do with how important those countries consider the Olympics, how many resources they are willing to allocate to train Olympic athletes, and how talented their athletes are. However, it also has to do with the size of the populations in those countries.

2012 Summer Olympics Medals

Let's look at the 2012 final Olympic medal standings. First, the final standings:

Note: each of the tables below show the top 10 Medal winners only; you can click on the hyperlink in each table to open an expanded version that includes all countries, not just the top 10. Data for all countries is also provided in the Excel file mentioned above.

2012 Summer Olympics - London
Published Medal Counts
    G S B Tot
1
United States
46
29
29
104
2
China
38
27
22
87
3
Russia
24
25
33
82
4
Great Britain
29
17
19
65
5
Germany
11
19
14
44
6
Japan
7
14
17
38
7
Australia
7
16
12
35
8
France
11
11
12
34
9
South Korea
13
8
7
28
10
Italy
8
9
11
28

Notice that many of the countries in the 2012 Top 10 were in the Top 10 in previous years as well.

Population-Adjusted Medal Standings

So what happens if we adjust the standings to account for the different population sizes of each country? We can calculate the number of Olympic Medals per person or, to improve readability of the results, the number of Olympic Medals per 100 million people in each country. We will call this the population-adjusted Medal count.

Medals Per 100 Million of Population

Let's adjust the above table of 2012 Medals by Country for population; the table below shows the new Top 10 in terms of "Total Medals per 100,000,000 population."

2012 Summer Olympics - London
Population-Adjusted Medals
(Medals per 100 Million Population)
    G S B Tot
1
Grenada
962
0
0
962
2
New Zealand
147
147
147
440
3
Slovenia
74
0
223
298
4
Estonia
114
68
114
297
5
Jamaica
289
0
0
289
6
Denmark
48
48
97
194
7
Cyprus
0
72
108
181
8
Qatar
80
40
50
170
9
Australia
36
72
54
162
10
Armenia
23
68
68
158
. . .
33
Russia
17
18
23
58
50
United States
15
9
9
34
74
China
3
2
2
7
Note:totals may not add due to rounding.

Well now ... This gives quite a different picture. Go Grenada! Kirani James won a gold medal in the 400 meter run; it was the first Gold Medal ever won by Grenada. With a single gold medal and a population of only 104,000, Grenada comes out on top. If China were to win at the same rate, they would have have to win 12,808 Gold Medals (ugh! ... but there were only 302 Gold Medals awarded at the Games)!

Go New Zealand! Winning 13 Medals in a country with a population of 4.4 million is good enough for second place in the Population-Adjusted Medal Standings. Slovenia, Estonia and Jamaica also performed quite admirably relative to the populations in each of these countries. From there, the Population-Adjusted Medal Counts drop off considerably.

On a Population-Adjusted basis, the United States drops to number 50 (below Singapore, and just ahead of Kuwait), China drops to number 74, and Russia drops to number 33. To see each country that won a medal re-ranked on this basis, click on the header in the table above. All three of these top Medal winners score substantially lower on a Population-Adjusted basis.

Points Per 100 Million of Population

Now, let's try something else. Clearly, winning a Gold Medal is better than winning a Silver Medal or a Bronze Medal, winning a Silver Medal is better than winning a Bronze Medal, and winning any medal is worth more than winning no medal. So ranking countries by how many Total Medals they won is still missing something. How about if we assign points for the various medals, say 4 points for Gold, 2 points for Silver and 1 point for Bronze. Here's what we get:

2012 Summer Olympics - London
Population-Adjusted Medals and Points
(Ranked by Points per 100 Million Population
)
    G S B Tot Points
1
Grenada
962
0
0
962
3,846
2
Bahamas
289
0
0
289
1,156
3
Jamaica
147
147
147
440
1,026
4
New Zealand
114
68
114
297
707
5
Trinidad and Tobago
74
0
223
298
521
6
Hungary
80
40
50
170
449
7
Slovenia
48
48
97
194
388
8
Croatia
68
23
45
135
361
9
Lithuania
60
30
60
150
360
10
Denmark
36
72
54
162
343
. . .
31
Russia
17
18
23
58
126
42
United States
15
9
9
34
87
68
China
3
2
2
7
17
Note:totals may not add due to rounding.

What do the numbers in this table mean? If you accept the way points are assigned for the various medals (G:4, S:2, B:1), this table gives the relative success at the 2012 Olympic Games of each country based on Population-Adjusted Points scored. In plain English, it shows how successful each country was relative to the number of people in that country.

If you do not like the way we assigned points to the various medals, you can assign your own values to see how it changes things. A link to the Microsoft Excel file mentioned above is provided here so that you can download it, play with the numbers, and make your own assessments.

More Issues to Consider

We have refined the Medal ranking process, but there are many other issues which could be considered in refining the standings further. Consider the following:

  1. The method of Medal counting above gives the same credit for a Soccer (Football, for those outside the United States) Medal as a 100-Meter Sprint Medal. A soccer team, for example, may have a roster of 18 members, and all of them get medals. So, the question arises as to whether team sports be awarded more medals and/or additional points in the rankings?
  2. Jamaica swept the 200-Meter Sprint event, garnering Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Should additional points be awarded in cases where a country so dominates an event?
  3. If a broader measure of Olympic success is desired, should the results of the Winter Olympics be combined with those of the Summer Olympics?
  4. How have results by country trended over time? Is the United States getting better or worse in the Population-Adjusted Medal Standings over time? How about other countries? Which countries are improving most? Which countries are declining most?
  5. Instead of using population as an adjuster to the number of Medals won, what happens if you use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an adjuster? That is, how do the results look on a Medals or Points per trillion dollars of annual GDP basis? What other adjusters might produce interesting results?

We hope you will have some fun with this.