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olympic medals, making a sense of In the aftermath of London’s Olympic games 2012, I’m annoyed by their use as a vehicle for nationalism. The way results of the Olympic games are officially presented is to rank countries by the number of medals - gold, silver, and bronze, sorting done in that order. A justification of it invokes two questions: (1) are rules of sorting purposeful, and (2) do medals relate to some country’s vital parameters? Rules of sorting. The current rules are misleading. While it is true that gold medal has to be valued more, it’s counterproductive to impose the primary sorting by gold medals only. For instance, Norway with 2 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze is ranked ahead of Canada with 1 gold, 5 silver, and 12 bronze. Let me suggest a ranking by olympic points calculated from the number of medals as olympic points = (gold x 4) + (silver x 2) + (bronze x 1) You may consider steeper stratification of the medals but even this modest one, binary, moves Canada up for fifteen places(!), definitely in front of Norway. Compare the ranking by points, in a green frame, with the ranking by gold medals. Medals vs country’s parameters. I’ve explored relationship of olympic points (rather then medals) to country’s population size, gross domestic product (GDP), gross domestic product at purchasing power parity (GDPppp) per capita, general education, tertiary education, health expenditures as % of GDP, health performance and human development index (HDI); enclosed here are four graphs. A general statement: there’s no correlation, none whatsoever. Then again, why would anyone expect a correlation at all? Jamaica’s magnificent sprinters definitely are not related to country’s population size or GDP or education or health insurance. Are medals really so expensive for an average citizen of Switzerland, Norway and Ireland? Olympic games are the days of pleasant unimportance. They are, after all, only games. They are a competition among sportsmen, profession- als mostly, not countries. Wait, did I mention a political significance? |
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