Sorry for the delay - I spent an hour or two making a spreadsheet including ALL the countries that won medals, only to find that there was no easy way to display it here! The table of countries that were actually picked by commenters is below. If I've navigated my way through Google Documents properly, you should be able to see the whole spreadsheet
here. The Bahamas were the overall winners - although none of us picked them.
Data SourcesMedalsPopulationsCommenter picksThere was no tie, so no need for me to try and figure out how to convert your medal predictions to standings - phew!
Mermaid can has bragging rights and a gold medal! Nice job! EcoGeoFemme takes the silver, and Kristi takes the bronze.
Thanks for playing everyone - this was fun!
How long till the Paralympics?
Yahoo. Yay I won!!!!
ReplyDeleteWait, was there a prize? :)
I like the perspective your table gives. I wonder if the 'official' medal tally could be displayed like that - might change some people's ideas on how well or poorly their countries did.
I can buy you a coffee tomorrow if you like! Hopefully with no added nasty surprises lurking in the foam...
ReplyDeleteOh, and you wouldn't be talking about our American friends, would you?!! Did you read the article that Bronwen linked to in the original post? Really interesting reading. GDP per capita is one of the strongest predictors of overall medal haul.
I didn't realize that Australia has a lower population than us. Regardless of the medal standings, I am super proud of how well our very poorly funded/supported athletes did. They kicked some arse and were very classy throughout. Go Canucks!
ReplyDeleteYay, I win a coffee WITHOUT what looked suspiciously like a pubic hair.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that coffee shop got closed down by the health department - I will have to check that out when I have a free minute.
:)
Scientistmother, I agree with you - I am proud of the Canadians too! They were awesome, and handled themselves so very well.
Well, I wasn't going to mention the nature of the nasty surprise, but seeing as you went there... that's almost definitely what it was. Sooooo glad that place closed.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the Canadian athletes did themselves proud. So many new Canadian records and fourth place finishes bodes well for London. It's amazing that anyone ever achieves anything in a sport other than hockey, really, considering the way the dollars flow.
what coffee place was it?? thats just GROSS
ReplyDeleteI forget the name but it was on the South-East corner of Broadway and Ash. Plus the sandwich I got there was made with stale bread, and the service sucked. Soooo glad it closed down, for whatever reason. Karma is sweet.
ReplyDeleteCafe Duma - thank you Google!
ReplyDeleteOh, gross, I just read the BC Health Inspection report. Blah.
ReplyDeleteI HAD to mention the nature of the disgustingness - otherwise people wouldn't know what a great prize regular coffee is!
:)
Where is that thing located? I did a brief search of the city's website but didn't find it. Or is it a provincial government thing?
ReplyDeletethanks for making me feel better than useless as I did when I realise just how bad "we" [my country] did.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe not as bad but all the excuses... I just don't get it. Either you think you're going to win, then you don't and you accept it. Or, you don't brag about how good you're gonna be etc... but seriously, blaming someone else [sailing winner/judge not looking/wet suit not tight/etc] really??
What article about GDP? I need to look that up.
I think excuse making is a fairly fundamental part of human nature - I know I do it waaaay too much!
ReplyDeleteHere's the link
And another link
ReplyDeleteI think you should throw in Ukraine for good measure - I am actually pretty impressed with what they were able to accomplish!
ReplyDeleteBetter than Canada!
ReplyDeleteFrom my second link, above:
"Kenya, Canada, Denmark, Belgium and Zimbabwe all won gold medals but were not predicted to do so (incidentally, Kenya won 5 and Canada won 3). That makes them the ultimate 'winners' in my book.
[...]
Among larger medal-winning nations, Australia and Great Britain both beat the total medal predictions by over 68 percent. In the gold medal race, Australia won 12 more gold medals than predicted, while Great Britain won 16 more than expected. Kudos to those squads!"
Hm, so Ukraine did better than the US per capita - so much for the GDP theory :)
ReplyDeleteBut clearly, population is not the best indicator either: just look at China vs. India!
I've been puzzling over the success indicator myself, and I suspect money, population, history of pushing for medals and current attitude towards winning all play a role.
Wow! Tiny New Zealand rocked out!
ReplyDeleteScienceGirl, I didn't read the second link all that carefully, but I know the guy can predict medals with uncanny success. I believe he did take the things you mentioned into account. It's interesting stuff!
ReplyDeleteEco, yeah they kicked ass! Like Canada they put most of their resources into one sport (rugby, and it shows - they're an amazing team) so they did great!
HAHA, according to the prediction Sweden wold have 19 medals and 2 gold. (Sweden got 5 medals, 0 gold.)
ReplyDeleteI am dying of laughter. Really. I need to eat lunch 'cause that was just too funny.
We would never ever get 19 medals in an [summer] Olympics. Maybe in a winter one if our skiers had some luck.
anyway, thanks for the laugh. And yes, I am kind of proud of my country but not for being an awesome sporting nation... [we might be good at "keeping everyone onboard and not sticking out"]
Hey, maybe in the ice hockey in 2010! (Yes, I know, it's heretical of me to say that).
ReplyDelete