August 13, 2024
I am a summer Olympics-aholic. In addition to the obvious events (track and field, swimming and diving, basketball), I watched — and enjoyed — some of the more obscure events, ranging from double sculls to table tennis to team handball to kayak cross to badminton and, yes, even a little breaking. Admittedly, I somehow missed the mixed marathon walk relay.
I’m going through withdrawal.
But while the USA is touting its medal totals — having accumulated more gold medals and more total medals than any other country — the New York Times suggested that there are any number of ways to gauge whether a particular country “won” the Olympics.
In events that involve a weapon, the leading medal-winning country was South Korea.
In events involving nets, it was China.
Among those countries whose G.D.P. is $10,000 or less, Uzbekistan found itself at the top of the heap, followed by Ukraine and Kenya.
Among those countries with a population of fewer than 10 million, New Zealand fared best, followed by Hungary and Denmark.
And the country with the most medals per capita? That would be Grenada, followed by Dominica and St. Lucia.
Meanwhile, Bolivia — which has attended every Olympic games since 1936 — has never had an athlete reach the podium. But the Bolivians at least are in good company: nearly 70 countries (roughly a third of the parade of nations) have never had an Olympic medalist.