To Light the Fire Within – a study of the Sochi Olympics Medal Winners statistics

The government of the Russian Federation spent 51 billion dollars, a considerable chunk of it on graft, bribery, corruption, and pay backs, to build and host a Winter Olympics in a semi-tropical Black Seaside resort.    Some day it would be nice if Russia hosted a Winter Olympic games in an actual wintertime mountain community in or near the Ural Mountains.  Anyway, for its 51 billion dollar investment, the Russian athletes won the most medals of all the competitors.

This next list shows a comparison contrast of the top three nation winners of the last five Winter Olympic Games.   Certain countries keep turning up.

Medal totals past 5 Winter Olympics

1998     Nagano       
 Germany    29
   Norway    25
    Russia        18               
 Japan         10   

2002    Salt Lake City        
Germany    36 
USA        34
Norway    25

2006    Turin            
Germany    29
  USA        25
  Austria    23    1 
Italy        11   

2010    Vancouver       
 USA        37
  Germany    30    4
 Canada    26    1

2014    Sochi            
Russia      33    2
USA        28    4
Norway     26    3

The good news from the Sochi Olympics is that the big countries with all the money and lots of athletes did not entirely over-dominate the games, they hardly dominated at all.   This has been the case at the Winter Olympics since 1998.  

Note the totals in the following lists for comparison contrast.

Medal winners from Countries with populations over 80 million

1     Russian Federation         33
2     United States of America     28
6     Germany             19
11     People's Republic of China     9
15     Japan                 8   
 total  97


Medal winners from the small countries in population

3     Norway             26
4     Canada             25
5     Netherlands             24
7     Austria             17
8     France             15
9     Sweden             15
10     Switzerland             11
12     Republic of Korea         8
13     Czech Republic         8
14     Slovenia             8
16     Italy                 8    most medals won, none gold
17     Belarus             6
18     Poland             6
19     Finland             5
20     Great Britain             4
21     Latvia             4
22     Australia             3
23     Ukraine             2
24     Slovakia             1
25     Croatia             1
26     Kazakhstan             1    
grand total 198

The European Union eclipsed the Chinese empire, the Russian Empire, and the American Empire with enough and to spare.  E U athletes won 141 medals.

Medal winners by continent

Europe        214

Asia            59

North America    53

Australia        3

I keep hoping that someday athletes from India, Indonesia, Africa, South America, or Caribbean or Pacific Isles will win Winter Olympic medals.   That may happen someday, but it did not happen this year.

The Olympics remains a rich person’s sport and a rich country’s sport.   Medal winners from the 12 wealthiest countries defined by the United Nations list in Wikipedia  

1     Russian Federation         33
2     United States of America     28
4     Canada             25
6     Germany             19
8     France             15
11     People's Republic of China     9
12     Republic of Korea         8
15     Japan                 8   
16     Italy                 8
20     Great Britain             4
22     Australia             3    
garnered a total of no fewer than 160 medals.

The money angle still remains the biggest road block to getting talented athletes from all corners of the world to an Olympic games.  The Olympics has the best athletes money can buy, but that does not mean it has the best athletes there are. 

Stronger.   Faster.  Higher.   Richer.