Remember I had talked about the more truth you know the more freedom you have, providing you have the skills and knowledge to handle the responsibility of those freedoms! Well, I hope to lay out a bit more truth. I did a little research on the Olympics, not much, but enough to maybe draw some interesting conclusions or at least for somebody to do more research. Maybe this could be a good project for a masters or doctorate student.
First, let me display some of the top medal winners, and allow me to throw in 3 characteristics. I sourced this data, other than medal count from http://www.cia.gov/. See the table below:
(I tried to import a table in this part of the blog, but the software does not allow me to, or at least, I don't know how to do it, so I will list the information the best way I can)
I will list the countries in order of medals won from the most to the least for the top 24 countries. The next number is their population, then a ratio of population to each medal won and finally, the country's Gross Domestic Production per capita (person).
1. United States, 11o medals, 303.8 million, 2.76 mill people/medal, with a GDP/cap of $46,000
2. China, 100 medals, 1330.0 mill, 13.30mill/medal, $5,300/pers
3. Russia, 73 medals, 140.7 mill, 1.93mill/medal, $14,700/pers
4. Great Britain, 48 medals, 60.9 mill, 1.27mill/medal, $35,100/pers
5. Australia, 46 medals, 20.6 mill, .45mill/medal, $36,300/pers
6. Germany, 42 medals, 82.4 mill, 1.96mill/medal, $34,200/pers
7. France, 40 medals, 64.1 mill, 1.60mill/medal, $33,200/pers
8. South Korea, 31 medals, 49.2 mill, 1.59mill/medal, $24,800/pers
9. Italy, 28 medals, 58.1 mill, 2.08 mill/medal, $30,400/pers
10. Ukraine, 28 medals, 46.0 mill, 1.64 mill/medal, $6,900/pers
11. Japan, 25 medals, 127.3 mill, 5.09 mill/medal, $33,600/pers
12. Cuba, 24 medals, 11.4 mill, .48 mill/medal, $4,500/pers
13. Belarus, 19 medals, 9.7 mill, .51 mill/medal, $10,900/pers
14. Canada, 18 medals, 33.2 mill, 1.84 mill/medal, $38,400/pers
15. Spain, 18 medals, 40.5 mill, 2.25 mill/medal, $30,100/pers
16. Netherlands, 16 medals, 16.6 mill, 1.04 mill/medal, $38,500/pers
17. Brazil, 15 medals, 191.9 mill, 12.79 mill/medal, $9,700/pers
18. Kenya, 14 medals, 38 mill, 2.71 mill/medal, $1,700/pers
19. Kazakhstan, 13 medals, 15.3 mill, 1.18mill/medal, $11,100/pers
20. Jamaica, 11 medals, 2.8 mill, .25mill/medal, $7,700/pers
21. Norway, 10 medals, 4.6 mill, .46mill/medal, $53,000/pers
22. Hungary, 10 medals, 9.9 mill, .99mill/medal, $19,000/pers
23. Poland, 10 medals, 38.5 mill, 3.85mill/medal, $16,300/pers
24. New Zealand, 9 medals, 4.2mill, .47mill/medal, $26,400/pers
The 3 other characteristics are population, gross domestic production (GDP) per person or capita and the number of medals per person or capita. This is very simple table, as I’m not a very good statistician (I only got 51% in statistics in college!). You’ll note that often a country with a large population received more medals. At least that seems right for the top 3 countries. However, what about Brazil? Japan? What about India? India only won 3 medals out of 1 billion people!
Let’s look at medals per person, the best country is Jamaica! Next are Australia, Norway, New Zealand and then Cuba. All of these countries are way ahead of the more populated ones.
I read various articles during my research and noticed that many writers were blaming their respective governments for lack of medal production. Blaming lack of infrastructure and financing mostly. And in the case of communist, fascist and/or socialist governments, that is probably true, seeing as they were elected or forced themselves in, having set them selves up as the only answer to their people. But what about free countries? Why is it that they win so many medals?
Norway is an interesting study. They have accumulated more Winter Olympic medals over the years than any other country in the world (see http://www.infoplease.com/) and they only have 4.6 million people! And they are second to Jamaica in the Summer Olympics in the medals per person category with one medal for every 460,000 people. Certainly their climate supports their winter efforts but what about Russia and Canada! Are their climates much different? Norway exports a lot of oil and that makes them quite a rich country for the number of people they have, is that what makes the difference? No, because look at Jamaica.
Jamaica cleaned up in the sprinting races this year. Their economy is no where near Norway’s, why do they do so well in sprinting? Is it the coaches? The athletes? The genetics? Their government? Jamaica doesn’t even compete in the Winter Olympics! (Except for bobsledding, in fact they train in Wisconsin!)
So what kinds of things might affect medal winnings? I list these in no specific order:
1. Geographical location of a country, namely the climate, certainly has an effect on the types of sports countries participate in particularly when it comes to winter sports versus summer sports.
2. Infrastructure of a country, namely transportation and communication systems, basic waste handling, food distribution, colleges with athletic facilities, communities with athletic facilities etc.
3. Religious culture, if certain religions want their members to focus on the ideals of their religion it may not foster participation in sports.
4. Economic factors, there is no doubt that sending athletes to the Olympics costs a lot of money, let alone the continual training that must take place.
5. Sports culture, some countries seem to love sports more than others, they will have a tradition of athletic participation and foster a belief of winning. The more medals they win, the more the belief they can continue to win. Many countries have schools and colleges that foster competitive sports, which promote semi-pro and professional leagues as well.
6. Government financial support, most countries rely on their governments to provide a considerable budget for their athletes, it ranges from 100% in cases like China and 0% in the case of US (the only known country that does not receive any money from government, I have only researched some of the top countries).
7. Government moral support, certain countries have a tradition of pride in various sports, or their leaders may love sports, thereby facilitating more athletic participation.
8. Genetics, at the risk of sounding “racist” (I hate that word, I’d prefer prejudiced or biased), I don’t have statistics on body types but it certainly appears that in certain parts of the world, for whatever reason, people can average taller, shorter, more or less athletic, a wide range of physical traits may be more prevalent than in one country than the other.
There are likely more factors I haven’t considered these are merely my observations. This subject could be the basis of some fascinating research. Having said all of the above, no matter what the outside factor may be, the main factor will always fall on the shoulders of the individual athlete.
It’s the individuals and the teams that say, “I(we) can do it, just show me(us) how, I’ll(we’ll) find the money, I’ll(we’ll) find the coach, and I’m (we’re) going to win!” Will an athlete make the necessary sacrifices in their personal lives to stick out the training day after day? Will they secure the necessary funding? Will they continue in spite of injuries, sickness and emotional turmoil? That’s what makes it work! What will he or she do to go to the end? Olympic Gold! Anyone who tries and gives it all they got, is an Olympic Champion in my books!
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