Not that I even really care, but the overall medal count strikes me as somewhat mis-representative of the true situation. Each country only has a limited population to draw upon for their team, shouldn’t this be considered?

Here’s the count, as of today: (I stopped at the NL, because I figured if they have more medals than you, you may as well just go home)

2008 Olympic Medal count sorted by total number of medals:

Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank by medal count
United States 14 12 18 44 1
China 25 9 6 40 2
Australia 5 7 8 20 3
Russia 3 8 8 19 4
France 3 8 7 18 5
South Korea 6 8 3 17 6
Italy 6 4 4 14 7
Germany 8 2 4 14 8
Japan 6 4 3 13 9
Cuba 1 3 4 8 10
Great Britain 3 2 3 8 11
Ukraine 3 0 4 7 12
Netherlands 1 2 4 7 13

And here’s how I think it should be:

2008 Olympic Medal count sorted by total number of medals / population:

Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank by medal count Population (Medal count / population) * 10 million
Cuba 1 3 4 8 10 #N/A #N/A
Ukraine 3 0 4 7 12 #N/A #N/A
Australia 5 7 8 20 3 21388597 9.3508
Netherlands 1 2 4 7 13 16444382 4.2568
South Korea 6 8 3 17 6 48224000 3.5252
France 3 8 7 18 5 64473140 2.7919
Italy 6 4 4 14 7 59619290 2.3482
Germany 8 2 4 14 8 82217800 1.7028
United States 14 12 18 44 1 304866000 1.4433
Russia 3 8 8 19 4 141888900 1.3391
Great Britain 3 2 3 8 11 60587300 1.3204
Japan 6 4 3 13 9 127690000 1.0181
China 25 9 6 40 2 1325525000 0.3018

…sorry Cuba and Ukrane, I couldn’t find your info.

Just in case the message here wasn’t clear, here’s a handy Gcal chart. I scaled the values by 10 million to make the numbers more aesthetically pleasing:

See how much more accurate this looks…?

Somehow, inexplicably, the Netherlands are coming second by this tally, which is so very wrong. I’m going to have to check/manipulate my calculations. Maybe the events for cheese-rolling, joint-smoking and red-light-districting have were all in the first few days.

I’m also working on factoring in a GDP component to the formula, but so far I’m not agreeing with how that looks.

Regardless, I think it’s abundantly clear that my home country is far and away the (presumptive) overall winner. I’m so inspired, I’m going to wear my new Australian flag beach towel (thanks mum) as a Cathy-Freeman-style cape this weekend.