2011-08-01

Olympic Gold To Silver Ratio

There are so many ways to rationalize the success of nations in sports. The Olympics is a popular one.

One method I disagree with is simply dividing population into number of medals won. Small countries will always look better given there are a finite amount of medals to be won.

I don't know if there are any better measurements out there but one I like to use is the ratio of gold medals to silver medals. It considers how countries do when they're in a position to win a gold medal.

Here's a look at countries with 100 plus combined (winter and summer games) gold medals:

China 56% of the time wins gold.
United States 55%.
Russia (including Soviet Union) 55%.
Italy 55%
Hungary 53%.
Norway 51%.
Japan 51%.
Finland 50%.
Australia 50%.
Sweden 50%.
Germany (including East Germany) 49%.
Netherlands 48%.
France 47%.
Great Britain 46%.
Canada 44%.

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