Meddling with the Olympics

Once again the games have come and gone leaving everyone (but the individual athletes) abuzz with a false sense of achievement in terms of standing and global domination.

At first glance it’s the same old list of usual suspects, but far be it from Flotscrum to accept anything at face value.

First let’s factor in the medal count from the 2014 Winter Olympics to ensure that no-one is penalized for: 1) having to spread their training dollars across two global stages; and/or 2) not being able to run, bike and swim through the ice and snow of their not so temperate climates.

Second we take into account each country’s available gene pool, or to be more precise their medal haul per 100,000 in population, to identify which countries were (or were not) punching above their weight class:

Third we offset the “Best Team Money Can Buy” factor by identifying each country’s medal count per billion dollars of GDP:

Fourth we smooth for the “You Can’t Win It If Your Ain’t In It” factor by calculating the number of medals won per athlete sent by each country:

Now by adding each country’s Chart 3 (per population), Chart 4 (per GDP), and Chart 5 (per athlete) rankings together we come up with the following list of countries that were the highest pure achievers on the global stage.

Conclusion:  Countries will continue to send the best teams their money can buy and it should therefore come as no surprise that the leader board will almost always be comprised of a relatively static combination of the usual suspects sitting atop the global leader board of economic wealth.