Top 10 countries with the most Olympic medals

[Vic Liu 1,699]

On 14/04/2020 at 03:00, Federer91 said:

You can't have an accurate all time medal table, when Russian athletes (medals) are counted in one, two, three, four teams, while China for example has all in one. The same goes for other nations. 

 

fun fact clarification: China is not all in one.

 

[OlympicsFan 860]

Today i read some interesting stats (not sure how up to date those stats still are) and thought that it might fit in this thread. In the book "Poor Economics" by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo it says:

- At the last 22 olympics India on average won 0.92 medals,

- There are 79 countries that won more medals on average and India has at least 10 times more people than 73 of those 79 countries,

- Among those 79 countries are for example Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. All those countries are poorer than India and have won at least ten times more medals per capita than India,

- No country that won less olympic medals than India has even one tenth of India's population, expect for Pakistan and Bangladesh ... coincidence?

 

The book offers an interesting possible explanation that doesn't have anything to do with funding or politics.

 

 

[Monzanator 4,846]

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

Today i read some interesting stats (not sure how up to date those stats still are) and thought that it might fit in this thread. In the book "Poor Economics" by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo it says:

- At the last 22 olympics India on average won 0.92 medals,

- There are 79 countries that won more medals on average and India has at least 10 times more people than 73 of those 79 countries,

- Among those 79 countries are for example Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. All those countries are poorer than India and have won at least ten times more medals per capita than India,

- No country that won less olympic medals than India has even one tenth of India's population, expect for Pakistan and Bangladesh ... coincidence?

 

The book offers an interesting possible explanation that doesn't have anything to do with funding or politics.

 

 

 

Too many people in India play cricket, that's all

[Dolby 755]

2 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

No country that won less olympic medals than India has even one tenth of India's population, expect for Pakistan and Bangladesh ... coincidence?

I don’t think there are a lot of nations who have more than one tenth of India’s population. China, USA, Russia are obviously way above all. Don’t think Indonesia or Nigeria are way ahead of India in all-time medal table. 

[Dolby 755]

25 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Too many people in India play cricket, that's all

People play a lot of different sports in addition to cricket at school levels. But there is not enough money/fame in other sports. So, not many go to professional level in other sports. Plus, there is severe lack of qualified coaches at junior/lower levels to create a wide pool of talent necessary for continued success. 

[OlympicsFan 860]

2 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Too many people in India play cricket, that's all

It's funny that you mention it ... since they discussed that point too. According to them it's not an explanation, because if all of "India's talent" would focus on cricket, then they should be very dominant in that sport, but they (according to the writers (i have no clue about cricket ...)) have never been as dominant as Australia/England or even the West Indies (apparently they are/were good in cricket?).

[OlympicsFan 860]

1 hour ago, Dolby said:

People play a lot of different sports in addition to cricket at school levels. But there is not enough money/fame in other sports. So, not many go to professional level in other sports. Plus, there is severe lack of qualified coaches at junior/lower levels to create a wide pool of talent necessary for continued success. 

The writers suggested that it had something to do with prenatal malnutrition/malnutrition during childhood. In Sub-Saharan Africa the percentage of children with severe acute malnutrition is only half as high as in India.

[OlympicsFan 860]

1 hour ago, Dolby said:

I don’t think there are a lot of nations who have more than one tenth of India’s population. China, USA, Russia are obviously way above all. Don’t think Indonesia or Nigeria are way ahead of India in all-time medal table. 

There are 8 countries with more than one tenth of India's population (USA, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Pakistan). Of course Indonesia and Nigeria aren't way ahead of India (and i think India will easily outperform both of those countries in Tokyo), but you have to ask yourself why India (Pakistan/Bangladesh/Indonesia) aren't way outperforming countries that are both much smaller and poorer. For example at the 2016 olympics India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh (with a combined population of roughly 2 billion people) won 5 medals combined, on the other hand:

- Kenya with a population of 47 million people won 13 medals

- Jamaica with a population of less than 3 million people won 11 medals

- Cuba with a population of 11 million people won 11 medals

- Uzbekistan with a population of 34 million people won 13 medals

- Colombia with a population of 50 million people won 8 medals

- South Africa with a population of 59 million people won 10 medals

It's not like any of those countries are super rich either ... and despite a much smaller population they are far more successful.

[Joshi 127]

Going on a different tack and that everyone has thrown up all kinds of scenarios. Just imagine if it went down to ethnicities or former empires? Great Britain and Ireland could legitimately claim hundreds if not thousands more. Most of the population in the anglosphere, I'm talking about countries where English is the lingua franca are either mostly of British/Irish stock or even partial. Two classic examples are both Australia and NZ. In NZ so many of us have ties to the UK that it makes me realise how young my nation is. But would actually never go for GB or England in any sport 

[Grassmarket 4,156]

9 hours ago, Joshi said:

Going on a different tack and that everyone has thrown up all kinds of scenarios. Just imagine if it went down to ethnicities or former empires? Great Britain and Ireland could legitimately claim hundreds if not thousands more. Most of the population in the anglosphere, I'm talking about countries where English is the lingua franca are either mostly of British/Irish stock or even partial. Two classic examples are both Australia and NZ. In NZ so many of us have ties to the UK that it makes me realise how young my nation is. But would actually never go for GB or England in any sport 

Most famous example was GB’s Ice Hockey Gold in 1936.  Team was mainly made up of guys who were born in the UK, but whose parents had later emigrated to Canada, so they learnt the game at school.