Australia and the World Past and Present

Which country performed the best at the recent Paris Olympics?

Well, there are statistics and then there are statistics.

The US came away with 40 gold medals and 126 overall.

China also got 40 but had less overall with 91.

Australia had a very successful Games. We achieved our highest ever number of gold medals – 18. We finished 4th overall, ahead of host nation France.

Australia’s performance was amazing by any metric. The three nations that scored higher than Australia all have significantly higher populations. Put simply, they have more people to choose from when sourcing athletes. Population isn’t the only key to success. Good sporting facilities, support and coaching and the degree to which sports are prioritised in society also play a part.

Yet population is a significant factor. Things get interesting when you consider a country’s medal count per capita.

In China there are roughly 35.25 million people for each gold medal.

In the US there are around 8.4 million for each gold.

In Australia the figures are roughly 1.5 million to 1.

Australia punches above its weight but other nations do even better.

Dominica tops the list of gold medals per capita.

Dominica’s Thea LaFond won gold in the women’s triple jump. This was the country’s first Olympic medal. With a population of some 67,408 Dominica features at the top of the per capita table.

Fellow Caribbean micro-state St Lucia also does well at number 2.

New Zealand did better on a per capita basis than Oz, So did Slovenia, the Netherlands and Ireland.

In Australia we like to think that our warm climate has some impact on producing sporting champions. This may be a factor, but it doesn’t explain everything as we can see from Norway which beat us in the per capita rankings.

Let’s hear it for Dominica. Thea LaFond overcame obstacles, beat the odds and produced a result above expectations. Well done.