In related news, China still leads the world in population with India a close second.
“It was my understanding that there would be no math.”
– Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford on Saturday Night Live
I am a dual citizen: USA and Finland. I enjoy watching the Olympics. But when the USA faces Finland, I generally root for Finland. Why? The USA has a population of 304 million, Finland 5.3 million (about the same as Minnesota). And I typically root for the underdog.
This is why “medal counts” have always rubbed me the wrong way. Is it really unexpected that the world’s most populous nations win the most medals? What is interesting to me is medals per capital.
Based on population-adjusted medal counts, Norway was the clear winner of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Finland finished 6th, Canada 8th, USA 20th, China 26th (last).
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total Medals | Population, Millions | Medals Per Million | Rank, Total Medals | Rank, Population | Rank, Medals Per Millions |
| Norway | 9 | 8 | 6 | 23 | 4.77 | 4.82 | 4 | 22 | 1 |
| Austria | 4 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 8.34 | 1.92 | 5 | 18 | 2 |
| Slovenia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2.04 | 1.47 | 18 | 25 | 3 |
| Sweden | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 9.22 | 1.19 | 8 | 17 | 4 |
| Switzerland | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7.63 | 1.18 | 11 | 19 | 5 |
| Finland | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5.31 | 0.94 | 15 | 21 | 6 |
| Latvia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2.27 | 0.88 | 23 | 24 | 7 |
| Canada | 14 | 7 | 5 | 26 | 33.3 | 0.78 | 3 | 11 | 8 |
| Estonia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.34 | 0.75 | 24 | 26 | 9 |
| Croatia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4.43 | 0.68 | 18 | 23 | 10 |
| Czech Republic | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 10.4 | 0.58 | 13 | 15 | 11 |
| Slovakia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5.41 | 0.55 | 18 | 20 | 12 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 16.4 | 0.49 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Germany | 10 | 13 | 7 | 30 | 82.1 | 0.37 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| Belarus | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9.68 | 0.31 | 18 | 16 | 15 |
| South Korea | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 48.6 | 0.29 | 7 | 9 | 16 |
| France | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 62 | 0.18 | 8 | 6 | 17 |
| Poland | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 38.1 | 0.16 | 13 | 10 | 18 |
| Australia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 21.4 | 0.14 | 18 | 12 | 19 |
| United States | 9 | 15 | 13 | 37 | 304 | 0.12 | 1 | 2 | 20 |
| Russia | 3 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 142 | 0.11 | 6 | 3 | 21 |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 59.9 | 0.08 | 15 | 8 | 22 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15.7 | 0.06 | 24 | 14 | 23 |
| Japan | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 128 | 0.04 | 15 | 4 | 24 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 61.4 | 0.02 | 24 | 7 | 25 |
| China | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 1326 | 0.01 | 8 | 1 | 26 |
But, like Chevy Chase as President Ford, most people don’t want to be confused with math.
It has been suggested by http://twitter.com/eachmorning/status/9882522069 that my logic is flawed:
Actually, it’s not http://twitter.com/ErikJHeels/status/9885728172:
But if you calculated weighted medal counts (3 points for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze), the standings are nearly identical, and Norway still wins in a landslide: