The charts that follow summarize the number of athletes each country placed
in the world top-100 rankings for 2001 (plus ties) and the highest-ranked
of these for each event. Since one or two placings may represent only
exceptional individuals, rather than national program strength, I've
truncated the lists to countries with three placings or more. The data base
drawn upon is the world list from Mirko Jalava's web site
<http://www.tilastopaja.com/>.
MEN'S Hammer 2001 WOMEN'S Hammer 2001
Country Top 101 Highest Country Top 100 Highest
Hungary 9 2 United States 16 5
Russia 8 8 China 11 19
Belarus 7 4 Belarus 7 9
United States 7 57 Germany 6 13
Ukraine 6 5 Russia 5 1
Italy 6 5 Hungary 5 3
Finland 6 12 Cuba 4 4
Germany 6 24 Finland 4 8
Poland 5 3 Ukraine 4 18
France 5 9 Poland 3 2
Great Britain 4 35 Australia 3 7
Czech Republic 3 16 Italy 3 11
Greece 3 20 Great Britain 3 12
China 3 62 Greece 3 34
33 countries represented 29 countries represented
100th = 70.19m = 230' 3" 100th = 60.64m = 198' 11"
Because it happens infrequently, a distribution where each athlete of the
top 10 represents a different country. In the women's hammer, it was each
of the top 13; respectively, RUS, POL, HUN, CUB, USA, FRA, AUS, FIN, BLR,
SVK, ITA, GBR, GER.
MEN'S Javelin 2001 WOMEN'S Javelin 2001
Country Top 101 Highest Country Top 100 Highest
Finland 19 2 China 13 16
Germany 10 5 Cuba 7 1
China 6 32 Russia 7 4
Great Britain 5 4 Germany 7 11
Russia 5 7 Romania 5 7
South Africa 4 38 Japan 5 17
Greece 3 3 Poland 5 19
United States 3 8 Ukraine 5 36
Latvia 3 12 United States 5 53
Poland 3 13 Italy 4 10
Japan 3 51 Belarus 4 29
India 3 72 Greece 3 2
France 3 22
Korea 3 61
35 countries represented 29 countries represented
100th = 75.87m = 248' 11" 100th = 54.51m = 178' 10"
There are several oddities to remark in these distributions. I always
expect Finland to be over-represented in the men's javelin, and it's always
satisfying to see an expectation confirmed. The national pride of Finland
in their javelin excellence goes all the way back to their sweep of the
Olympic medals in the Antwerp games of 1920 and has been rewarded with six
Olympic golds in the years since. I believe this is the first time India
has had the three top-100 athletes in an event necessary to make the charts
and it's the first time I can remember any Pakistan athlete making a top
100, Zahid Hussein's NR 78.75m ranking 64th.
And how about those Cuban women? Seven in the top 100, including #1! To put
that in some perspective, Cuba has half as many throwers in the top 100 as
China, although China's population is 114 times that of Cuba and its
relative national wealth (gross domestic product per capita) is double that
of Cuba.
