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Thursday 21 August 2008

The real Olympic medal table

I was wondering how the UK's medal haul would compare on a by population basis, and so I was pleased to find Channel 4's alternative table generator. Of course being Channel 4, as well as a population comparative (currently topped by Jamaica, Slovenia and Bahrain) they have comparisons by GDP (fair enough - currently topped by North Korea, Zimbabwe and Jamaica), by "US ordering" which is by total medals not golds (currently topped by USA, China and Russia) and by "Human Rights" which takes into account the often laughable rankings devised by the US Freedom House organisation (currently topped by USA, GB & NI and Australia).

One interesting fact is that sorted by population, India come bottom. Why does India do so poorly in the Olympics medal table? Answers that the Indians are too busy just trying to just survive will not be accepted as that applies even more to many African countries and China.

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