The Olympics are here, and once again I find myself stunned by the ski jumpers flying off 100m ramps before somersaulting through the air. For me, just hitting the “M” jumps is a victory for the weekend. I was curious how my country stacks up against others in the field, and to answer that question, I put together this historical view of each country’s1 olympic performance, with the top 20 shown initially.
One thing that sticks out to me looking at the data this way is that most countries have won more medals in recent years than 20-30 years ago. Two notable exceptions are Russia and the U.K., which have each put up consistent medal counts throughout the past century.
Here’s a basic look at medals per country per capita, from 1924-2014, using 2017 population data2. Note that this recent population data will disfavor countries with significant recent population growth.
Norway earned the 3rd most medals overall, and with a population of just 5 million, they dominated medal-earnings per capita. Each of the Scandinavian countries were strong performers, with Sweden and Finland each earning around 150 medals with populations of 10 and 6 million, respectively.
One surprise here for me was Denmark, which has only won 1 medal among a population of 5 million. Given that it’s a Nordic country like its Scandinavian peers, I’d expected it to have a better streak, but it turns out that despite being relatively northern, Denmark stays above 0 Celsius for most of the year. Based on how much my friend in Copenhagen complains, I’d have thought it was consistently 40 below!
The map really puts in perspective how few countries send top performers to the winter olympics. This is intuitive, as an olympic skier from, say, the United Arab Emirates would have been as absurd as a Jamaican bobsled team. Although with the advent of Ski Dubai, perhaps it’s not out of the question.
Notes:
- East Germany and West Germany are included with Germany, and Russia includes the Soviet Union and Team Unified.
- Source: CIA World Factbook