Isn't it amazing that Italy with 60 million inhabitants, Sweden with 10 million inhabitants and Norway with 5 million inhabitants have so many medals ?
United States of America (USA) 2965
Soviet Union (URS) 1204
United Kingdom (GBR) 950
Germany (GER) 918
France (FRA) 887
Italia (ITA) 758
China (CHN) 711
Sweden (SWE) 679
Japan (JPN) 573
Norway (NOR) 565
The medals are from both the Summer and Winter Olympics
Maybe those nations are either expert in some kind of sports (typically winter sports for Norway?) or have the ability to "buy" athlets, offering them nationality and potentially a better life to compete for them?
The last case sounds a bit ill to me, but possible enouh without looking at the data. THat being said, it would feel that somethin is off with it, for it doesn't sound like it belongs to some kind of "olympic spirit".
Another very possible explanation could lies in the fact that those countries have more time/resources to invest in leisure and sports/competitions than others as well.
Additionnal explanations could be that there are some genetic explanation as to why those countries (mostly europeans), perform better relatively to their population size. Maybe because they are taller or something, or that the olympic games are mainly traditionnal european sports?
Maybe those nations are either expert in some kind of sports (typically winter sports for Norway?) or have the ability to "buy" athlets, offering them nationality and potentially a better life to compete for them?
The last case sounds a bit ill to me, but possible enouh without looking at the data. THat being said, it would feel that somethin is off with it, for it doesn't sound like it belongs to some kind of "olympic spirit".
Another very possible explanation could lies in the fact that those countries have more time/resources to invest in leisure and sports/competitions than others as well.
Additionnal explanations could be that there are some genetic explanation as to why those countries (mostly europeans), perform better relatively to their population size. Maybe because they are taller or something, or that the olympic games are mainly traditionnal european sports?
I can't say that Italy has won the biggest medals in fencing, athletics, cycling, boxing, rowing, gymnastics, clay shooting, swimming, skiing and sledding. However, as far as Norway is concerned, they certainly have more medals in winter sports
Numbers might be misleading in such cases. We need to take a closer look. First of all, in early stages of olympic games were not globally representative. Let's check St. Louis 1904, USA, Summer Olympics. From 12 nations, 651athletes competited in 95 events. USA had 526 athletes in these 95 events. Germany had 22 athletes in these 95 events as well. USA won 231 medals in total and Germany won 15 medals in total. Whose winning ratio is better actually? Germany has 68%, and USA has 44%. But we see USA in the first place in ranking. Cuba participiated in same games with 3 athletes and they won 3 gold medals. This is just an example. You can check other games as well.
