Medal Table (Won by USA): GDP, Population, Home Advantage

Paris Lou USA girls basketball, beating France in the last Olympic finalThe United States narrowly won the medal table over China, equal with 40 golds, but more silver and more overall medals. The last time the United States lost a match was in Beijing 2008.. Not surprisingly. This is one of the basic rules of the medal table, and the subject of many studies: it is called Home FeatureIt depends on Various factors (from programming to psychology) And also France gave the final confirmation, fifth place overall.from 33 to 64 medals, although Great Britain performed better at London 2012 (third place). But back to the challenge between the giants competing for world leadership, The women’s advantage was particularly pronounced: 26 American gold medals to 19 Chinese, while the reverse occurred among the men. (17 China, 13 USA, betrayed above all by the swimmers).

But what kind of world does the medal collection present to us? Meanwhile, there is a hypothesis that has been somewhat forgotten: Russia has left the Olympic world map, which means that in three years 71 medals have disappeared, 20 of them gold, but apparently no one in particular benefits from it. In Tokyo, Russia won 10 medals in gymnastics, 8 in fencing, 8 in shooting, and 7 in swimming. (including technical), just to talk about heavy sports.

There were 93 countries on the podium in Tokyo, and this time there were 91 countries.with the first party Gold from Saint Lucia and Dominica (Who wins with Grenadathe order of the medals in relation to the number of inhabitants), i.e. First ever podium for Cape Verde and Albania. The first medal also for the refugee team: Cindy Njamba’s bronze in boxing.

If it is clear that there is a direct relationship between population, GDP and medals, Richer countries perform much better in swimming, sailing, cycling and equestrian sports, Where they have more weight, equipment or training opportunities, while Poor people compete in combat sports or martial arts..

Then there are interesting exceptions. Let’s take there. Chinese (GDP half that of the United States), Most of the medals come from a few sports: in the past 50 years, a third of all medals have been won in diving. (In Paris for the first time he invaded All 8 gold medals available) and more than half of the platform places table tennis. A little bit of what’s happening Korea, the real champion of achievement, rose from 20 medals to 32, but above all from 6 golds to 13 (five medals all in shooting)..

If you look at population Cases that stand out Two countries outshine Italy in medals table: Australia (which has always been a sporting power, driven by swimming, and which, through its sports institute that supports the federations from a medical and logistical point of view, has been the model that CONI has been looking to since 2016 onwards) and the Netherlands, which has remained fairly stable in terms of the number of medals (from 36 to 34) but has increased the number of gold medals (from 10 to 12), thanks to some sports (rowing, track cycling) and some athletes (Hassan won three medals). It has a somewhat Darwinian model, similar to that of Great Britain: funding (which also comes from the lottery) They focus on the sport that They get results..

He is not the same person who chose Italy.But you get to the podium by taking completely different paths.