The most efficient medal winning country?

   I'd like to find out which country was most medal efficient in regards to number of athletes participating.  So, if you have hundreds of athletes, do you win far more medals?  Are China actually very inefficient by funding so many athletes and sending them all to compete?  
For example, China have dominated the medal table with 83 medals so far, yet they had over 564 athletes competing.  Is this in-efficient?  Could they have cut back on the guys and girls going, only sending the medal prospects?  The sums show that they have a medal to athlete ratio of one medal for every 6.7 athletes competing.  Not bad..
Now GBR have 297 athletes and 41 medals giving an efficiency of 7.2 athletes per medal...  China still come out on top, but this goes to show that having several athletes per event is not always a huge bonus.  GBR sent a third of the athletes that China sent and won about a third of the medals..  Which means we have a similar quality of athlete as the worlds current best country.
Oh, and the USA? 629 athletes and 100 medals = 6.29 athletes per each medal which is the most efficient in the top 5... damn.

Finally, Germany are the worst, with 14 athletes per medal win :)

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RyanV49er Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 28 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 217	Post Options Post Reply Quote RyanV49er Report Post Quote Reply Topic: The most efficient medal winning country? Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:00am
	I'd like to find out which country was most medal efficient in regards to number of athletes participating. So, if you have hundreds of athletes, do you win far more medals? Are China actually very inefficient by funding so many athletes and sending them all to compete? For example, China have dominated the medal table with 83 medals so far, yet they had over 564 athletes competing. Is this in-efficient? Could they have cut back on the guys and girls going, only sending the medal prospects? The sums show that they have a medal to athlete ratio of one medal for every 6.7 athletes competing. Not bad.. Now GBR have 297 athletes and 41 medals giving an efficiency of 7.2 athletes per medal... China still come out on top, but this goes to show that having several athletes per event is not always a huge bonus. GBR sent a third of the athletes that China sent and won about a third of the medals.. Which means we have a similar quality of athlete as the worlds current best country. Oh, and the USA? 629 athletes and 100 medals = 6.29 athletes per each medal which is the most efficient in the top 5... damn. Finally, Germany are the worst, with 14 athletes per medal win :)
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kanga Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 09 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 248	Post Options Post Reply Quote kanga Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:03am
	I think thats a very good point actually- surely its all about percentages......percent of medal winning athletes per number of athlets for the country - a different way of saying the same as you say..........doesn't make some nations look quite so hot now does it!!?

RyanV49er Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 28 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 217	Post Options Post Reply Quote RyanV49er Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:04am
	Oh, and the best overall? Zimbabwe, with 4 medals and only 13 competitors!
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Stuart O Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 22 Jul 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 514	Post Options Post Reply Quote Stuart O Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:06am
	I think another interesting way of looking at the effiency is to look at the number of finalists to medals. On a quick calculation I think team GBR did very well esp as we can then say that just under a 50% chance of a gold medal when the team medalled

allanorton Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 21 Nov 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 228	Post Options Post Reply Quote allanorton Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:24am
	If you combine the olympic & paralympic medal tables we will be about top.

kanga Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 09 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 248	Post Options Post Reply Quote kanga Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:27am
	Cor check out Zimbabwe, excellent spot! haha!

RyanV49er Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 28 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 217	Post Options Post Reply Quote RyanV49er Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:28am
	I wrote a bit more about Zim on my blog: http://visser49erracing.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/are-china-r eally-that-good/ God, I should really do some work...
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kanga Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 09 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 248	Post Options Post Reply Quote kanga Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 10:56am
	me too!!

Tornado_ALIVE Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 07 Nov 04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 611	Post Options Post Reply Quote Tornado_ALIVE Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 11:20am
	How about medals per capita http://www.symworld.com/medals/index.php?sort=total Jamacia 1st New Zealand 4th Australia 5th GBR 23rd USA 41st China 63rd
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RyanV49er Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 28 Oct 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 217	Post Options Post Reply Quote RyanV49er Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 08 at 11:24am
	Jamaica are good at medals per capita as they do well in athletics. You just need a straight bit of grass and you can train all day long! So for the Chinese, the women have won the vast majority of the medals compared to the men.. I wonder why this is? Maybe the women have a harder work ethic in comparison to sports women in other countries? I wouldn't dare comment, but it's an interesting thing to think about. Edited by RyanV49er
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