On medals at the Olympics

There's one thing that is very apparent at any Olympics, regardless of where they take place, or whether they are summer or winter.

The USA has a massively inflated ego .

Those annoying cries of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" are the bane of many non-American sports fan.  The boastful  tweets from athletes and spectators alike about the US “showing the rest of the world that we’re the best” and the like.

Yes, the States wins a lot of medals – usually more than any other country – and it has produced some truly fantastic and incomparable athletes who deserve all the kudos in the world, but there's a bit of perspective needed when you look at those numbers.  When you compare hardware with population, the story of who is “the best” has a very different outcome. 

Before every Olympics, Sports Illustrated releases their list of medal picks, and these games are no different.  Now let's pretend that the magazine's crystal ball had just been in for servicing and was working particularly well the day they made their predictions and everything they expect to happen does indeed take place. And let's suppose that each medal won represents a million dollars, and every person living in a country that wins a medal split the money equally.

For these Games, SI predicts that China will win 100 medals. With 1.4 billion inhabitants, it only takes some rudimentary math (some that even I can do) to calculate that each of those medals would have to be shared between 1.4 million people.  Therefore, each Chinese person would receive a less-than-stellar 7 cents at the end of the games.

The States are pegged to take home a hefty 110 medals. If they did, it would mean that 314 million Americans would each be 35 cents richer.

By comparison, Canada, with its predicted comparatively modest 17 medals, would win 48 cents for each of its 35 million people.

But even more impressive is humble little New Zealand.  If SI is correct, this tiny country with all of 4 million inhabitants will take home 16 medals.  That translates to a full $4 for each kiwi, and that's enough for a nice flat white, a nice lamb pie, or maybe even half a jug. 

So yeah…New-Zea-Land, New-Zea-Land.