[Whether you're a sports stats junkie, or have just had
your interest mildly piqued by the opening of the London
Olympics, the site below provides both illuminating
charts and interactive apps to explore which countries
are real Olympic winners. -- moderator]

Which Countries Are the Real Olympic Winners?

     Faster, higher, smaller? A different way of
     measuring who does best at the summer games.

By Dave Gilson
Jul. 27, 2012
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/07/summer-olympics-medal-gdp-charts

When all the medals from the 2012 Summer Olympics in
London are tallied up, the top slots will likely be
occupied by the usual suspects-the United States, China,
and Russia. But what if we tried to measure countries'
Olympic achievements without simply counting how many
medals they bring home? What if we compared their
athletes' performance against the size of their
economies and populations?

That's what this interactive chart does. Click the play
button at the bottom to see animated data starting in
1960. Hover over dots to see country names; click on a
dot to turn on its label. (And scroll down to the bottom
of this post for a customizable version.)

As you'll see in the chart above, looking at Olympic
records this way produces some interesting results. For
example, in the 2008 Beijing games, Jamaica only won 11
medals (or 32 medal points, if you assign 4 points to
gold, 2 to silver, 1 to bronze). But it outperformed the
big guns like the United States and China when it came
to how many medal points it got relative to its
developing economy and tiny population. While the US
garnered 0.02 medal points per billion dollars of GDP
and 0.8 medal points for every 1 million Americans,
Jamaica picked up 2.2 medal points per billion dollars
of GDP and 11.9 medal points for every 1 million
Jamaicans. Not bad.

By this metric, other countries that outperformed the
big medal winners in 2008 included the Bahamas, Cuba,
Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mongolia, and Zimbabwe.

This isn't necessarily a sign that these countries are
up-and-coming athletic powerhouses. In some cases it
simply means that they have a handful of world-class
athletes and terrible economies (e.g. Ethiopia and
Zimbabwe). Doing well in events that award a lot of
medals also helps (e.g., Cuba and boxing and judo.)
Other factors that may help countries' overall Olympic
performance: Being a former member of the Soviet Bloc or
a country with a planned economy, since they are more
likely to aggressively recruit and train athletes. Being
the host country also provides a bump (e.g. Mexico in
1968).

A few other trends and stories pop out when you look at
the data between 1960 and 2008:

 The United States' performance relative to its
population has remained pretty steady. But its
performance relative to GDP has been dropping, due to
economic growth.

 After poor showings in the '60s and '70s, China has
become a major Olympic contender. Its performance
relative to GDP has fallen as its economy has grown,
while its performance relative to its massive population
has been increasing.

 A big population can mean more medals, but it isn't
necessarily an advantage; consider India, which has a
dismal Olympic record.

 A lot more countries, especially small and/or poor
ones, are picking up medals. In 1960, the medals were
gobbled up by big and/or rich countries. Those countries
still do well, but the field is a lot more competitive
now. (Note the appearance of more green and blue dots
over time.) Poorer countries tend to perform better
relative to their GDPs than rich ones. Wealthier
countries tend to perform better relative to their
population sizes than poor ones.

A few notes about the data: The chart only shows data
for summer Olympic games. The economic data is
incomplete for several countries, most notably Russia
and other former Soviet Bloc countries; their GDPs and
per capita GDPs are recorded as zero for many years.
Though the data is in four-year increments, the chart
automatically extrapolates the years in between games;
it's pretty, but obviously no one won any medals in 2007
or 1961.

Other quirks in the data: West and East Germany fielded
a single national team in 1960 and 1964. In 1992, Russia
and 11 other former Soviet republics formed the Unified
Team. That year, athletes from Yugoslavia and Macedonia
competed as the Independent Olympic Participants. The
United States and many other nations won no medals in
1980 since they boycotted the Moscow Olympics; likewise,
Russia and several Soviet-aligned nations won no medals
in 1984 when they boycotted the Los Angeles games.

Use the fully customizable chart below to further
explore the data. Leave your findings and questions in
the comments.

Dave Gilson is a senior editor at Mother Jones.

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