London Olympics 2012 Medals per Athlete Ranking
In my opinion, the medal count of the Olympics is misleading. It does not take into account how many athletes actually completed for each country. Botswana sent four athletes. They can never dream of ranking high in the final tally even if 100% of the won gold.
Thus, medal per athlete is a better reflection and measurement on the performance of each country. Since no one seems to be computing it, I calculated it. (Download Excel file.) And the results are surprising.
This method of counting is full of problems as well. An entire soccer team can win only one medal whereas one lone swimmer can win many.
So, which method is the most accurate way of measuring a country’s performance? Whichever that puts your country on top is the best, of course.
Total Medal per Athlete Ranking. (Data Source: Official London Olympics Site)
| Country | Medals/Athelete |
| Botswana | 0.25 |
| Jamaica | 0.24 |
| Iran | 0.23 |
| China | 0.23 |
| Kenya | 0.22 |
| Ethiopia | 0.20 |
| Georgia | 0.20 |
| United States of America | 0.19 |
| Russian Federation | 0.19 |
| Mongolia | 0.17 |
| Azerbaijan | 0.17 |
| Qatar | 0.17 |
| Afghanistan | 0.17 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 0.13 |
| Cuba | 0.13 |
| Japan | 0.12 |
| Armenia | 0.12 |
| Great Britain | 0.12 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.11 |
| Germany | 0.11 |
| Netherlands | 0.11 |
| South Korea | 0.11 |
| North Korea | 0.11 |
| Hungary | 0.11 |
| Grenada | 0.10 |
| France | 0.10 |
| Kuwait | 0.10 |
| Italy | 0.10 |
| Moldova | 0.09 |
| Indonesia | 0.09 |
| Singapore | 0.09 |
| Slovakia | 0.09 |
| Romnania | 0.09 |
| Australia | 0.08 |
| Ukraine | 0.08 |
| Bahrain | 0.08 |
| Thailand | 0.08 |
| Lithuania | 0.08 |
| Puerto Rico | 0.08 |
| Denmark | 0.08 |
| Ireland | 0.08 |
| Cyprus | 0.08 |
| Czech Republic | 0.08 |
| Belarus | 0.08 |
| Uzbekistan | 0.07 |
| Colombia | 0.07 |
| India | 0.07 |
| New Zeland | 0.07 |
| Malaysia | 0.07 |
| Mexico | 0.07 |
| Canada | 0.06 |
| Brazil | 0.06 |
| uganda | 0.06 |
| Tajikistan | 0.06 |
| Norway | 0.06 |
| Estonia | 0.06 |
| Slovenia | 0.06 |
| Dominican Republic | 0.06 |
| Sweden | 0.06 |
| Croatia | 0.06 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0.05 |
| Guatenmala | 0.05 |
| Finland | 0.05 |
| Poland | 0.05 |
| Taipei | 0.05 |
| South Africa | 0.05 |
| Turkey | 0.04 |
| Latvia | 0.04 |
| Solvenia | 0.04 |
| Bahamas | 0.04 |
| Switzerland | 0.04 |
| Tunisia | 0.04 |
| Gabon | 0.04 |
| Serbia | 0.03 |
| Bulgaria | 0.03 |
| Montenegro | 0.03 |
| Romania | 0.03 |
| Argentina | 0.03 |
| Spain | 0.03 |
| Algeria | 0.03 |
| Belgium | 0.03 |
| Hong Kong China | 0.02 |
| Greece | 0.02 |
| Egypt | 0.02 |
| Venezuela | 0.01 |
| Morocco | 0.01 |
| Portugal | 0.01 |
For those who believe in gold only, here is the gold medal per athlete ranking.
| Country | Gold/Athe |
| Grenada | 0.10 |
| China | 0.10 |
| Ethiopia | 0.09 |
| United States of America | 0.09 |
| Jamaica | 0.08 |
| Iran | 0.08 |
| North Korea | 0.07 |
| uganda | 0.06 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.06 |
| Russian Federation | 0.05 |
| Great Britain | 0.05 |
| South Korea | 0.05 |
| Hungary | 0.05 |
| Cuba | 0.05 |
| Kenya | 0.04 |
| Bahamas | 0.04 |
| Azerbaijan | 0.04 |
| Netherlands | 0.03 |
| France | 0.03 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 0.03 |
| Lithuania | 0.03 |
| Norway | 0.03 |
| Czech Republic | 0.03 |
| Georgia | 0.03 |
| Dominican Republic | 0.03 |
| Italy | 0.03 |
| Germany | 0.03 |
| Croatia | 0.03 |
| New Zeland | 0.03 |
| Algeria | 0.03 |
| Ukraine | 0.03 |
| Japan | 0.02 |
| South Africa | 0.02 |
| Latvia | 0.02 |
| Romnania | 0.02 |
| Switzerland | 0.02 |
| Uzbekistan | 0.02 |
| Turkey | 0.02 |
| Denmark | 0.02 |
| Belarus | 0.02 |
| Australia | 0.02 |
| Ireland | 0.02 |
| Slovenia | 0.01 |
| Solvenia | 0.01 |
| Venezuela | 0.01 |
| Tunisia | 0.01 |
| Brazil | 0.01 |
| Spain | 0.01 |
| Romania | 0.01 |
| Mexico | 0.01 |
| Colombia | 0.01 |
| Poland | 0.01 |
| Serbia | 0.01 |
| Sweden | 0.01 |
| Argentina | 0.01 |
| Canada | 0.00 |
| Botswana | 0.00 |
| Mongolia | 0.00 |
| Qatar | 0.00 |
| Afghanistan | 0.00 |
| Armenia | 0.00 |
| Kuwait | 0.00 |
| Moldova | 0.00 |
| Indonesia | 0.00 |
| Singapore | 0.00 |
| Slovakia | 0.00 |
| Bahrain | 0.00 |
| Thailand | 0.00 |
| Puerto Rico | 0.00 |
| Cyprus | 0.00 |
| India | 0.00 |
| Malaysia | 0.00 |
| Tajikistan | 0.00 |
| Estonia | 0.00 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0.00 |
| Guatenmala | 0.00 |
| Finland | 0.00 |
| Taipei | 0.00 |
| Gabon | 0.00 |
| Bulgaria | 0.00 |
| Montenegro | 0.00 |
| Belgium | 0.00 |
| Hong Kong China | 0.00 |
| Greece | 0.00 |
| Egypt | 0.00 |
| Morocco | 0.00 |
| Portugal | 0.00 |
Unfortunately your statistical numbers is not correct ; for example North Korea, 6 medals and 56 athletes which gives about 0.11 not 0.23 !
You are right! I wonder how that happened because I only copied-and-pasted the numbers from the official site. I didn’t type any of the numbers myself. I suspect the official site updated the number in the meantime.
I changed the number to 56, and recalculated the list. Thank you for fact checking.