IOC Announces Olympic Medals to be Scaled

Atlanta, GA -- In a surprise move, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President H.E. Juan Antonio Samaranch announced today that the number of medals awarded to each country would now be scaled by the population of that country. "We felt that it was important to make this change right away," said Samaranch, "the old system of scoring just wasn't being fair to smaller countries." The United States immediately purchased marketing rights to the new system, and was named the baseline country for scoring. The new system, effective immediately, resulted in a number of extraordinary changes in the standings. Bahamas, with its lone silver medal, was propelled to first in the standings with 1028 medals - a substantial lead over second place Jamaica's 618 medals. The United States, previously ranked first overall, finished a disappointing 38th out of 72, just behind Mongolia. Said US President Bill Clinton, "I'm sure our athletes did the best they could, but I guess the pressure of competing at home got to them." All over the United States, athletes returning home expecting cheering crowds instead faced the dismal silence of a once proud nation that had been crushed. "We hope to improve our standings in Sydney, perhaps by reducing our population," added First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. China, with its massive population of 1.2 billion, suffered the worst defeat, losing all but 11 of its 50 medals, and dropping from 4th to 67th place. Likewise, India was forced to return its only medal, a bronze. A full chart of the adjusted standings and medal appears below. (credits)

Medals Standings by Total Medals

Scaled by country population with USA as a baseline

Adjusted Rank	Country	Actual Total	Actual Rank	Population	Adjusted Total
1	Bahamas[BAH]	1	26	256,616	1028
2	Jamaica[JAM]	6	21	2,574,291	615
3	Cuba[CUB]	25	9	10,937,635	603
4	Australia[AUS]	41	5	18,322,231	590
5	Hungary[HUN]	21	12	10,318,838	537
6	New Zealand[NZL]	6	21	3,407,277	465
7	Bulgaria[BUL]	15	16	8,775,198	451
8	Norway[NOR]	7	20	4,330,951	426
9	Trinidad and Tobago[TRI]	2	25	1,271,159	415
10	Belarus[BLR]	15	16	10,437,418	379
11	Netherlands[NED]	19	14	15,452,903	324
12	Namibia[NAM]	2	25	1,651,545	319
13	Denmark[DEN]	6	21	5,199,437	304
14	Ireland[IRL]	4	23	3,550,448	297
15	Czech Republic[CZE]	11	18	10,432,774	278
16	Switzerland[SUI]	7	20	7,084,984	261
17	Slovenia[SLO]	2	25	2,051,522	257
18	Sweden[SWE]	8	19	8,821,759	239
19	Romania[ROM]	20	13	23,198,330	227
20	Germany[GER]	65	2	81,337,541	211
21	Finland[FIN]	4	23	5,085,206	208
22	Canada[CAN]	22	11	28,434,545	204
23	Greece[GRE]	8	19	10,647,511	198
24	France[FRA]	37	7	58,109,160	168
25	Kazakhstan[KAZ]	11	18	17,376,615	167
26	Italy[ITA]	35	7	58,261,971	158
27	Belgium[BEL]	6	21	10,081,880	157
28	Korea[KOR]	27	8	45,553,882	156
29	Armenia[ARM]	2	25	3,557,284	148
30	Slovakia[SVK]	3	24	5,432,383	146
31	Republic of Moldova[MDA]	2	25	4,489,657	118
32	Ukraine[UKR]	23	10	51,867,828	117
33	Poland[POL]	17	15	38,792,442	116
34	Spain[ESP]	17	15	39,404,348	114
35	Croatia[CRO]	2	25	4,665,821	113
36	Russian Federation[RUS]	63	3	149,909,089	111
37	Mongolia[MGL]	1	26	2,493,615	106
38	United States of America[USA]	101	1	263,814,032	101
39	Austria[AUT]	3	24	7,986,664	99
40	Yugoslavia[YUG]	4	23	11,101,833	95
41	Latvia[LAT]	1	26	2,762,899	95
42	Georgia[GEO]	2	25	5,725,972	92
43	Costa Rica[CRC]	1	26	3,419,114	77
44	Kenya[KEN]	8	19	28,817,227	73
45	Puerto Rico[PUR]	1	26	3,812,569	69
46	Great Britain[GBR]	15	16	58,295,119	68
46	Lithuania[LTU]	1	26	3,876,396	68
47	Democratic People's Republic of Korea[PRK]	5	22	23,486,550	56
48	Portugal[POR]	2	25	10,562,388	50
49	Israel[ISR]	1	26	5,433,134	49
50	Hong Kong[HKG]	1	26	5,542,869	48
51	Burundi[BDI]	1	26	6,262,429	42
52	Azerbaijan[AZE]	1	26	7,789,886	34
53	Tunisia[TUN]	1	26	8,879,845	30
54	Japan[JPN]	14	17	125,506,492	29
54	South Africa[RSA]	5	22	45,095,459	29
55	Zambia[ZAM]	1	26	9,445,723	28
55	Algeria[ALG]	3	24	28,539,321	28
56	Malaysia[MAS]	2	25	19,723,587	27
57	Turkey[TUR]	6	21	63,405,526	25
57	Brazil[BRA]	15	16	160,737,489	25
58	Ecuador[ECU]	1	26	10,890,950	24
59	Argentina[ARG]	3	24	34,292,742	23
59	Uzbekistan[UZB]	2	25	23,089,261	23
60	Morocco[MAR]	2	25	29,168,848	18
61	Syrian Arab Republic[SYR]	1	26	15,451,917	17
62	Nigeria[NGR]	6	21	101,232,251	16
63	Mozambique[MOZ]	1	26	18,115,250	15
64	Ethiopia[ETH]	3	24	55,979,018	14
65	Uganda[UGA]	1	26	19,573,262	13
66	Chinese Taipei[TPE]	1	26	21,500,583	12
66	Islamic Republic of Iran[IRI]	3	24	64,625,455	12
67	People's Republic of China[CHN]	50	4	1,203,097,268	11
68	Thailand[THA]	2	25	60,271,300	9
69	Indonesia[INA]	4	23	203,583,886	5
70	Phillippines[PHI]	1	26	73,265,584	4
71	Mexico[MEX]	1	26	93,985,848	3
72	India[IND]	1	26	936,545,814	0

Credits

Page written, computed, and created by Elliot Schwartz <elliot@mit.edu>.

Medals data taken from IBM's Olympics site. (I stole the flags from there too, but I think they'd have a hard time claiming they have a Copyright on them. )

Population data taken from the 1995 CIA World Factbook.

Elliot Schwartz / <elliot@mit.edu> / August 5, 1996.