Readers in Britain might have noticed "alternative" medals
tables in one or two of the newspapers. The Guardian (3rd
October) carried a table which they said took into account
the size and prosperity of individual countries, though as
far as I could see it was actually only based on
prosperity. To quote: "We have given three points for a
gold, two for a silver and one for a bronze and then
divided the total number of points to see how many each
country got per $10bn of national income". The resulting
table had Cuba in top place, with Britain at 54, the USA at
62 and Australia at 19.
London's Evening Standard (also 3rd October) also reported
alternative results, though didn't show the entire table.
This was based on an analysis by (unspecified) researchers
in New Zealand's University of Waikito. They awarded 5 for
a gold, 3 for a silver and 1 for a bronze, and then
"related their points tally to the populations of the
countries"...."[T]he Bahamas, with a tiny population of
just 300,000, easily topped the adjusted rankings with a
score of 28.67 points. Australia, with a population of 18
million were second with just under 10 points, followed by
Cuba, population 11m, with 8.67 points. Britain - with 28
medals including 11 golds - were 35th with just 1.58 points
while the USA finished in 39th place with only 1.13 points.
The Evening Standard article goes on to add: "The
university researchers produced their table in response to
what they described as "much public angst and criticism"
over the poor performance of New Zealand, who have a
population of 3.6m". NZ finished 25 in this table.
It seems to me that, although these tables are fun and
might give some politically-correct comfort to those who
didn't do so well, they assume too strong a relationship
between medal performance and factors such as population or
income. According to the recent regression analysis sent to
this list, gdp may be important but only accounts for about
35.4% of variance in medal performance.
Dr. David Hardman
"Rational - Devoid of all delusions save those
of observation, experience and reflection."
- Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary)
Phone: +44 020 73201256
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