Sunday, August 29, 2004
Medals Count.
Hey everybody! I wanted to get one last thought on the Olympics out before the topic fails to be timely. There is a lot of talk about the medal counts of the countries participating in the Olympics. By most angles, the USA looks like it is the undisputed champion of athletic prowess. But let's look closer at the numbers.
The US has a ton of athletes competing in the games compared to most countries, We (currently) have 102 total medals, 35 of which are gold. Both our total count, and our gold count are the highest in the games. But only 1/3rd of our medals are gold. China, on the other hand, has 62 total medals, and 31 of them are gold. Exactly 50%. So of China's medal earning athletes, half of them are the best in their respective events. The US is not so lucky.
I wish that there were better numbers posted to reflect the number of medals earned versus participants. Smaller countries, such as Cuba (27 medals, 9 gold), Kenya (7 medals, 1 gold), and New Zealand (5 medals, 3 gold) may have high percentage of medals to participants; meaning, their athlete-representatives are quality over quantity.
The USA has a lot of money to throw at all sorts of sports. Even a nation as large as China has to justify spending on their athletic programs. China may not see the viability in developing an archery team when they are already so strong at diving. Kenya may lack resources entirely to develop team handball, kayaking, and platform diving. The USA has stories of athletes struggling to train and earn a living, but even the worst story from a US athlete probably doesn't compare to the disparity of athletes such as the Iraqi women.
The point is this; our superficial emergence as world athlete power is due to more factors than our ability at sports. It also reflects the amount of financial resource out country generates, primarily the resource that is made available for leisure and athletic endeavors. It could be that of USA's 614 number of athletes, we may only medal 17% of the time (tied with Cuba, who in comparison only sent 160 delegates). North Korea is just a step behind with 14% (36 athletes). Russia beats us at the athletic cold war: 18% of their 514 athletes medaled. (as a side note, the magic number appears to be 9%; which means roughly that 1 in every 10 athletes tend to get some podium time).
These sort of statistical analysis questions impact our daily lives, and we need to learn to look beyond the "obvious" numbers. As any minister will tell you, there is a great temptation in measuring your ministry's effectiveness by numbers (such as attendance, baptisms, and giving sums). But rarely do these numbers tell the true story.
As a practical example, consider that we have an election coming up. We will be subject to a lot of poll results. We need to look past things like approval ratings, popularity with sub-groups within the public, and voter turnouts to see the bigger pictures. We need to consider the effect that the potential candidates will have on many issues, such as health care, education, research, and industry. You cannot hear that Bush's administration has saved $"x" in taxes and assume he is the best candidate. You cannot look at Kerry's plan for job creation and assume he will be the best president. There are many things to consider, often intangible when it comes to statistical analysis.
So while I am proud to live in America, and happy that our men and women (mostly our women) have performed at such a high level, and successfully represented us as true champions... I am even more proud as I vicariously live through the nation of United Arab Emirates (one medal, four representatives), Zimbabwe (3 medals with 13 athletes, including one gold!), Ethiopia (24%! 7 medals with only 29 athletes), Thailand (18% of their 44 medaled, including 3 golds), Syria (one medal, six contestants), Eritrea (one deal, 4 athletes!), Kenya (7 of 51 athletes), Iran (6 medals, 40 athletes), Azerbaijan (5 medals in 39), Georgia (4 medals, 33 athletes), and Turkey (who had 9 medals, 3 of each color, with only 67 athletes). Imagine how proud those athletes' countrymen must feel. Rather than sending a flood of athletes, hoping for the law of averages to yield medals, they truly sent forth champions; flagships of their home nation.
Please note that I used the total number of athletes, and this is misleading in one particular manner; it does not account for the fact that team sports may have more participants and earn only one medal. For instance, Paraguay only earned one medal with 32 entrants, but only 5 of them were not on their soccer team (so they really has 1 medal with 6 entries). I simply did not have the data handy to do an analysis based on this. It would be interesting to see medal counts per event...
... It would also be interesting to see medal counts (which is the media's standard for athletic achievement by country) compared to the respective country's populations. It's all anthropology people, not sports. Or is it really all boil down to math... : )
All data was taken from Yahoo! Sports
See ya!
The US has a ton of athletes competing in the games compared to most countries, We (currently) have 102 total medals, 35 of which are gold. Both our total count, and our gold count are the highest in the games. But only 1/3rd of our medals are gold. China, on the other hand, has 62 total medals, and 31 of them are gold. Exactly 50%. So of China's medal earning athletes, half of them are the best in their respective events. The US is not so lucky.
I wish that there were better numbers posted to reflect the number of medals earned versus participants. Smaller countries, such as Cuba (27 medals, 9 gold), Kenya (7 medals, 1 gold), and New Zealand (5 medals, 3 gold) may have high percentage of medals to participants; meaning, their athlete-representatives are quality over quantity.
The USA has a lot of money to throw at all sorts of sports. Even a nation as large as China has to justify spending on their athletic programs. China may not see the viability in developing an archery team when they are already so strong at diving. Kenya may lack resources entirely to develop team handball, kayaking, and platform diving. The USA has stories of athletes struggling to train and earn a living, but even the worst story from a US athlete probably doesn't compare to the disparity of athletes such as the Iraqi women.
The point is this; our superficial emergence as world athlete power is due to more factors than our ability at sports. It also reflects the amount of financial resource out country generates, primarily the resource that is made available for leisure and athletic endeavors. It could be that of USA's 614 number of athletes, we may only medal 17% of the time (tied with Cuba, who in comparison only sent 160 delegates). North Korea is just a step behind with 14% (36 athletes). Russia beats us at the athletic cold war: 18% of their 514 athletes medaled. (as a side note, the magic number appears to be 9%; which means roughly that 1 in every 10 athletes tend to get some podium time).
These sort of statistical analysis questions impact our daily lives, and we need to learn to look beyond the "obvious" numbers. As any minister will tell you, there is a great temptation in measuring your ministry's effectiveness by numbers (such as attendance, baptisms, and giving sums). But rarely do these numbers tell the true story.
As a practical example, consider that we have an election coming up. We will be subject to a lot of poll results. We need to look past things like approval ratings, popularity with sub-groups within the public, and voter turnouts to see the bigger pictures. We need to consider the effect that the potential candidates will have on many issues, such as health care, education, research, and industry. You cannot hear that Bush's administration has saved $"x" in taxes and assume he is the best candidate. You cannot look at Kerry's plan for job creation and assume he will be the best president. There are many things to consider, often intangible when it comes to statistical analysis.
So while I am proud to live in America, and happy that our men and women (mostly our women) have performed at such a high level, and successfully represented us as true champions... I am even more proud as I vicariously live through the nation of United Arab Emirates (one medal, four representatives), Zimbabwe (3 medals with 13 athletes, including one gold!), Ethiopia (24%! 7 medals with only 29 athletes), Thailand (18% of their 44 medaled, including 3 golds), Syria (one medal, six contestants), Eritrea (one deal, 4 athletes!), Kenya (7 of 51 athletes), Iran (6 medals, 40 athletes), Azerbaijan (5 medals in 39), Georgia (4 medals, 33 athletes), and Turkey (who had 9 medals, 3 of each color, with only 67 athletes). Imagine how proud those athletes' countrymen must feel. Rather than sending a flood of athletes, hoping for the law of averages to yield medals, they truly sent forth champions; flagships of their home nation.
Please note that I used the total number of athletes, and this is misleading in one particular manner; it does not account for the fact that team sports may have more participants and earn only one medal. For instance, Paraguay only earned one medal with 32 entrants, but only 5 of them were not on their soccer team (so they really has 1 medal with 6 entries). I simply did not have the data handy to do an analysis based on this. It would be interesting to see medal counts per event...
... It would also be interesting to see medal counts (which is the media's standard for athletic achievement by country) compared to the respective country's populations. It's all anthropology people, not sports. Or is it really all boil down to math... : )
All data was taken from Yahoo! Sports
See ya!
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