If you were to make a table that lists the Olympic teams from best to worst, how would you do it?

Question

...in a way that would be fair?

Of course, total medals wouldn't be fair because some countries send way more athletes than others. Medals per person wouldn't be quite right either because a country could send only one athlete, that athlete would win a gold medal, and than he/she would end up at the top of the list.

Considering all of that, how would you make the table?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I would simply go with the number of medals, its much simpler, but its true, it isnt 100% fair.

Open up microsoft publisher, and list each of the countries, and the number of golds, silver and bronze for each year. then i would add up the total number of medals in that olympic game, and the total number of medals for that country.

that may not be completly fair, but its the only way i can figure it out. good luck- i hope this helped.

Answer 2

The total medal count for all Summer Olympic Games from 1896 to 2004 is tabulated below. These counts do not include the totals from the 1906 Intercalated Games, which are no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as official Games.

This table is sorted by the number of gold medals earned by each National Olympic Committee (NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, NOCs are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This follows the system used by the IOC, IAAF and BBC, but not by NBC and CNN.

Summer games

1 United States (USA) 896 692 603 2191
2 Soviet Union (URS) 395 319 296 1010
3 Great Britain (GBR) 189 242 237 668
4 France (FRA) 183 196 216 595
5 Italy (ITA) 182 147 164 493
6 Hungary (HUN) 156 136 157 449
7 East Germany (GDR) 153 129 127 409
8 Germany (GER) [1] 148 153 188 489
9 Sweden (SWE) 142 155 173 470
10 Australia (AUS) 117 122 147 386
11 Japan (JPN) 114 106 115 335
12 China (CHN) 112 96 78 286
13 Finland (FIN) 100 82 113 295
14 Russia (RUS) 86 80 85 251
15 Romania (ROM) 82 88 113 283
16 Cuba (CUB) 65 53 52 170
17 Netherlands (NED) 64 74 92 230
18 Poland (POL) 59 74 118 251
19 West Germany (FRG) 56 67 81 204
20 Canada (CAN) 55 85 102 242
21 South Korea (KOR) 55 64 65 184
22 Norway (NOR) 51 43 41 135
23 Bulgaria (BUL) 50 83 74 207
24 Czechoslovakia (TCH) 49 49 45 143
25 Unified Team (EUN) [2] 45 38 29 112
26 Switzerland (SUI) 43 70 61 174
27 Denmark (DEN) 39 61 63 163
28 Belgium (BEL) 36 50 51 137
29 Turkey (TUR) 36 19 19 74
30 New Zealand (NZL) 33 14 30 77
31 Greece (GRE) 30 40 34 104
32 Spain (ESP) 29 39 27 95
33 United Team of Germany (EUA) [3] 28 54 36 118
34 Yugoslavia (YUG) 28 31 31 90
35 Ukraine (UKR) 21 17 31 69
36 South Africa (RSA) 20 23 26 69
37 Austria (AUT) 18 32 33 83
38 Kenya (KEN) 17 24 20 61
39 Brazil (BRA) 17 21 38 76
40 Argentina (ARG) 15 23 22 60
41 Ethiopia (ETH) 14 5 12 31
42 Mexico (MEX) 10 18 24 52
43 Iran (IRI) 10 15 21 46
44 North Korea (PRK) 8 11 16 35
45 Estonia (EST) 8 7 14 29
46 Ireland (IRL) 8 6 6 20
47 Mixed team (ZZX) 8 5 4 17
48 India (IND) 8 4 5 17
49 Jamaica (JAM) 7 21 14 42
50 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 7 12 7 26
51 Czech Republic (CZE) 7 9 11 27
52 Egypt (EGY) 7 7 9 23
53 Belarus (BLR) 6 15 26 47
54 Morocco (MAR) 6 4 9 19
55 Indonesia (INA) 5 8 7 20
56 Thailand (THA) 5 2 10 17
57 Slovakia (SVK) 4 6 4 14
58 Lithuania (LTU) 4 2 5 11
59 Algeria (ALG) 4 1 7 12
60 Portugal (POR) 3 6 11 20
61 Australasia (ANZ) 3 4 5 12
62 Croatia (CRO) 3 4 5 12
63 Uzbekistan (UZB) 3 3 5 11
64 Pakistan (PAK) 3 3 4 10
65 Bahamas (BAH) 3 2 3 8
66 Azerbaijan (AZE) 3 1 5 9
67 Nigeria (NGR) 2 8 9 19
68 Chinese Taipei (TPE) 2 6 7 15
69 Chile (CHI) 2 6 4 12
70 Slovenia (SLO) 2 3 5 10
71 Georgia (GEO) 2 2 8 12
72 Uruguay (URU) 2 2 6 10
73 Cameroon (CMR) 2 1 1 4
Zimbabwe (ZIM) 2 1 1 4
75 Luxembourg (LUX) 2 1 0 3
76 Latvia (LAT) 1 10 3 14
77 Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) 1 3 8 12
78 Uganda (UGA) 1 3 2 6
79 Peru (PER) 1 3 0 4
80 Venezuela (VEN) 1 2 7 10
81 Colombia (COL) 1 2 6 9
82 Tunisia (TUN) 1 2 3 6
83 Israel (ISR) 1 1 4 6
84 Costa Rica (CRC) 1 1 2 4
85 Armenia (ARM) 1 1 1 3
Syria (SYR) 1 1 1 3
87 Hong Kong (HKG) [4] 1 1 0 2
88 Dominican Republic (DOM) 1 0 1 2
Mozambique (MOZ) 1 0 1 2
Suriname (SUR) 1 0 1 2
91 Burundi (BDI) 1 0 0 1
Ecuador (ECU) 1 0 0 1
United Arab Emirates (UAE) 1 0 0 1
94 Mongolia (MGL) 0 5 10 15
95 Namibia (NAM) 0 4 0 4
96 Philippines (PHI) 0 2 7 9
97 Lebanon (LIB) 0 2 2 4
Moldova (MDA) 0 2 2 4
99 Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) 0 2 0 2
Tanzania (TAN) 0 2 0 2
101 Puerto Rico (PUR) 0 1 5 6
102 Bohemia (BOH) 0 1 3 4
Ghana (GHA) 0 1 3 4
104 Independent Olympic Participants (IOP) 0 1 2 3
Iceland (ISL) 0 1 2 3
Malaysia (MAS) 0 1 2 3
107 Haiti (HAI) 0 1 1 2
Saudi Arabia (KSA) 0 1 1 2
Sri Lanka (SRI) 0 1 1 2
Zambia (ZAM) 0 1 1 2
111 Côte d'Ivoire (CIV) 0 1 0 1
Netherlands Antilles (AHO) 0 1 0 1
Paraguay (PAR) 0 1 0 1
Senegal (SEN) 0 1 0 1
Singapore (SIN) 0 1 0 1
Tonga (TGA) 0 1 0 1
Vietnam (VIE) 0 1 0 1
Virgin Islands (ISV) 0 1 0 1
119 British West Indies (BWI) 0 0 2 2
Panama (PAN) 0 0 2 2
Qatar (QAT) 0 0 2 2
122 Barbados (BAR) 0 0 1 1
Bermuda (BER) 0 0 1 1
Djibouti (DJI) 0 0 1 1
Eritrea (ERI) 0 0 1 1
Guyana (GUY) 0 0 1 1
Iraq (IRQ) 0 0 1 1
Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) 0 0 1 1
Kuwait (KUW) 0 0 1 1
FYR Macedonia (MKD) 0 0 1 1
Niger (***) 0 0 1 1

Winter games

Norway (NOR) 98 98 84 280
2 United States (USA) 78 80 58 216
3 Soviet Union (URS) 78 57 59 194
4 Germany (GER) 57 57 39 153
5 Austria (AUT) 51 64 70 185
6 Sweden (SWE) 43 31 44 118
7 Finland (FIN) 41 58 52 151
8 East Germany (GDR) 39 36 35 110
9 Canada (CAN) 38 38 43 119
10 Switzerland (SUI) 38 37 43 118
11 Italy (ITA) 36 31 34 101
12 Russia (RUS) 33 24 19 76
13 Netherlands (NED) 25 30 23 78
14 France (FRA) 25 24 34 83
15 South Korea (KOR) 17 8 6 31
16 West Germany (FRG) 14 17 15 46
17 Japan (JPN) 9 10 13 32
18 Unified Team (EUN) 9 6 8 23
19 United Team of Germany (EUA) 8 6 5 19
20 Great Britain (GBR) 8 3 10 21
21 China (CHN) 4 16 13 33
22 Croatia (CRO) 4 3 0 7
23 Estonia (EST) 4 1 1 6
24 Czech Republic (CZE) 3 5 2 10
25 Australia (AUS) 3 0 3 6
26 Czechoslovakia (TCH) 2 8 15 25
27 Liechtenstein (LIE) 2 2 5 9
28 Poland (POL) 1 3 4 8
29 Bulgaria (BUL) 1 2 3 6
30 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 1 2 2 5
31 Belgium (BEL) 1 1 3 5
Ukraine (UKR) 1 1 3 5
33 Spain (ESP) 1 0 1 2
34 Uzbekistan (UZB) 1 0 0 1
35 Belarus (BLR) 0 3 3 6
36 Yugoslavia (YUG) 0 3 1 4
37 Hungary (HUN) 0 2 4 6
38 Luxembourg (LUX) 0 2 0 2
39 North Korea (PRK) 0 1 1 2
40 Denmark (DEN) 0 1 0 1
New Zealand (NZL) 0 1 0 1
Slovakia (SVK) 0 1 0 1
43 Slovenia (SLO) 0 0 4 4
44 Latvia (LAT) 0 0 1 1
Romania (ROM) 0 0 1 1

Answer 3

Don't listen to the bloviator that gives a 20 page dissertation on your question. You set the table like this.

USA
USSR
Germany
everybody else