Most of us sports-mad Australians like to think that we punch well above our weight when it comes to Olympic competition. Australians, and our media, just love the medal table that we believe shows what a superior sporting nation we are. If the numbers of medals that we win, per capita, are any measure of how well we perform at Olympic sports then we better think again. The table below, from the “Olympic Medals Per Capita” web site, shows the ranking of countries according to their numbers of Olympic gold medal per capita from the Pyeongchang Games.
| Rank | Country | Gold Medals | Population | Population per Gold Medal |
| 1 | Norway | 14 | 5,195,921 | 371,137 |
| 2 | Sweden | 7 | 9,798,871 | 1,399,838 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 5 | 8,286,976 | 1,657,395 |
| 4 | Austria | 5 | 8,611,088 | 1,722,217 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 8 | 16,936,520 | 2,117,065 |
| 6 | Canada | 11 | 35,851,774 | 3,259,252 |
| 7 | Belarus | 2 | 9,513,000 | 4,756,500 |
| 8 | Czech Republic | 2 | 10,551,219 | 5,275,609 |
| 9 | Slovakia | 1 | 5,424,050 | 5,424,050 |
| 10 | Finland | 1 | 5,482,013 | 5,482,013 |
| 11 | Germany | 14 | 81,413,145 | 5,815,224 |
| 12 | Hungary | 1 | 9,844,686 | 9,844,686 |
| 13 | South Korea | 5 | 50,617,045 | 10,123,409 |
| 14 | France | 5 | 66,808,385 | 13,361,677 |
| 15 | Italy | 3 | 60,802,085 | 20,267,361 |
| 16 | Japan | 4 | 126,958,472 | 31,739,618 |
| 17 | United States | 9 | 321,418,820 | 35,713,202 |
| 18 | Poland | 1 | 37,999,494 | 37,999,494 |
| 19 | Ukraine | 1 | 45,198,200 | 45,198,200 |
| 20 | Great Britain | 1 | 65,138,232 | 65,138,232 |
| 21 | China | 1 | 1,371,220,000 | 1,371,220,000 |
We are beaten by the poms, our neighbours Japan, China and South Korea, the seppos… and even Canada. Oh, the shame! Aagh. We are so crap!
The table for total Olympic medals (of all kinds) looks a tiny bit better for Australia. At least we make the list… but only in nineteenth place. But… we are still smashed by virtually all the Northern European countries, a significant number of ex-soviet block countries, plenty of Southern European countries and, worst of all, New Zealand and Canada! Check all the bad news out at http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2018.
I know. I know. Many will complain that we are a summer sports country so it’s not fair to look at stats from the Winter Olympics. But, come on! We do like to pretend that we are pretty good at the winter stuff, too, don’t we? Aren’t we supposed to have the best snowboarders and aerialists anywhere? And if you think our ranking at Rio would be much better well… that is debatable. We did a little better but still got flogged by many including our mates from across the ditch. Check it out.
| Rank | Country | Gold Medals | Population | Population per Gold Medal |
| 1 | Bahamas | 1 | 388,019 | 388,019 |
| 2 | Jamaica | 6 | 2,725,941 | 454,323 |
| 3 | Croatia | 5 | 4,224,404 | 844,880 |
| 4 | Fiji | 1 | 892,145 | 892,145 |
| 5 | New Zealand | 4 | 4,595,700 | 1,148,925 |
| 6 | Hungary | 8 | 9,844,686 | 1,230,585 |
| 7 | Bahrain | 1 | 1,377,237 | 1,377,237 |
| 8 | Georgia | 2 | 3,679,000 | 1,839,500 |
| 9 | Kosovo | 1 | 1,859,203 | 1,859,203 |
| 10 | Slovenia | 1 | 2,063,768 | 2,063,768 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 8 | 16,936,520 | 2,117,065 |
| 12 | Cuba | 5 | 11,389,562 | 2,277,912 |
| 13 | Great Britain | 27 | 65,138,232 | 2,412,527 |
| 14 | Slovakia | 2 | 5,424,050 | 2,712,025 |
| 15 | Switzerland | 3 | 8,286,976 | 2,762,325 |
| 16 | Denmark | 2 | 5,676,002 | 2,838,001 |
| 17 | Australia | 8 | 23,781,169 | 2,972,646 |
| 18 | Armenia | 1 | 3,017,712 | 3,017,712 |
| 19 | Puerto Rico | 1 | 3,474,182 | 3,474,182 |
| 20 | Serbia | 2 | 7,098,247 | 3,549,123 |
We slip in at the thoroughly underwhelming seventeenth… way worse than perpetual bitter rivals U.K. and New Zealand!
Well, not to worry. It doesn’t mean a thing. Who cares about Olympic sports? Surely its more important to be good at cricket and Australian Rules Football!
Leave a Reply