CC1 said:
I thought that the ceremony was wonderful. I agree with you that the US will probably win the most medals, but look at how many athletes they have entered. I think a better question would be:
....
No, I think the questions would be :
- Who will win the most medals per capita
- Who will win the most medals per country's land area
- Who will win the most medals as a percentage of atheletes participating
Have a look at the stats on
Nationmaster for the all time number of Summer Olympic medals per country, as well as
per capita stats. It is not fair to count the number of medals per country when the least populous country participating has a pop of 30,000 (Monaco) and the most populous 1,300,000,000 (China). The per capita rate is much more representative of the country's real ability. You'll notice that the first 6 countries in all time medal per capita are all European (including all 4 Nordic countries). The US ranks 28th, Japan 44th, Russia 60th and China 92th with this ranking.
Concentrating all the
Sydney 200 Olypmics only (per capita), the top 10 is a bit different with the Bahamas first, followed by Australia, Cuba, Norway and Jamaica. Again, looking at te to 25, there are 5 Caribbean countries, 18 European countries + Australia and New Zealand.
