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Broken Dragons |
Crime and Corruption
in today's China |
by Bruce Dalbrack |
A look at the darker side of the Chinese economic miracle |
Buy the book! |
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| Approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics people should think more about medals won per capita (column A, below). Total medals won is misleading (column B, below) because countries with larger populations appear to do well but this is for non-athletic reasons |
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A |
B |
Medals |
G |
S |
B |
Total
population |
Medals
per capita |
Top 10 |
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| Bahamas |
1 |
52 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
321,000 |
0.625 |
| Australia |
2 |
4 |
49 |
17 |
16 |
16 |
20,092,000 |
0.240 |
| Cuba |
3 |
11 |
27 |
9 |
7 |
11 |
11,353,000 |
0.230 |
| Estonia |
4 |
65 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1,294,000 |
0.230 |
| Slovenia |
5 |
64 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1,990,000 |
0.200 |
| Jamaica |
6 |
34 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2,701,000 |
0.190 |
| Latvia |
7 |
59 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
2,265,000 |
0.180 |
| Hungary |
8 |
13 |
17 |
8 |
6 |
3 |
9,784,000 |
0.170 |
| Bulgaria |
9 |
33 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
7,763,000 |
0.160 |
| Belarus |
10 |
26 |
15 |
2 |
6 |
7 |
9,809,000 |
0.150 |
Others |
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| Greece |
12 |
15 |
16 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
10,978,000 |
0.150 |
| Russia |
27 |
3 |
92 |
27 |
27 |
38 |
145,612,000 |
0.063 |
| France |
31 |
7 |
33 |
11 |
9 |
13 |
60,711,000 |
0.054 |
| UK |
33 |
10 |
30 |
9 |
9 |
12 |
59,598,000 |
0.050 |
| US |
39 |
1 |
103 |
35 |
39 |
29 |
300,038,000 |
0.034 |
| Japan |
44 |
5 |
37 |
16 |
9 |
12 |
127,914,000 |
0.029 |
| Taiwan |
49 |
31 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
22,486,000 |
0.022 |
| Hong Kong |
57 |
66 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
7,182,000 |
0.014 |
| China |
70 |
2 |
63 |
32 |
17 |
14 |
1,322,273,000 |
0.005 |
| India |
75 |
66 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1,096,917,000 |
0.000 |
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Conclusions
- It is clear America won most medals at Athens 2004. They won 103 totally, followed by China who won 63. Much further behind were Russia, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and the UK.
- This is an unfair calculation. Total medals won are usually taken as showing winners and losers. But can Australia be fairly compared with America given its 20 million people are about 5% of America's 300 million? Can the UK be fairly compared with China given it has 5% of China's population?
- A fairer calculation is medals won relative to population. Essentially this measures efficiency: how well a country creates winning athletes from available population. This calculation confirms the stand out Olympic performers from Athens 2004 are two smaller countries - Australia (population 20 million) and Cuba (11 million). Several former Eastern bloc countries also perform well especially Estonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Belarus.
Western European democracies with smaller populations also do not badly: Denmark, Netherlands and Norway are good examples.
The UK and US are of only middling efficiency at winning medals. The two population giants India, in particular, and China remain amongst the least efficient countries in winning medals.
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Notes
All figures except Taiwan from United Nations. Taiwan data here. |
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