User:Medalstats

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I am trying to improve the all time Olympic medal count tallies at Wikipedia. Although the International Olympic Committee IOC rejects medal tallies and rankings of nations (e. g., Sports Illustrated), the mass media publish them anyway. Different sources follow wildly varying habits though. CNN and NBC and others rank nations by the total number of medals, BBC and others by gold. Some simply delete nations such as the USSR that do not exist any more; e. g., see here. Many omit the number of participations per country (the USSR participated rarely, but usually won the medal count whenever they did). Some demand tallies with an entry for the EU, just like in GDP tables, e. g.: List of countries by GDP (nominal); compare the Washington Times. The medals of the various fragments of Germany are often but not always added together, e. g., here. The medals of the USSR and its successor state CIS are frequently but not always added together. Often the medals of USSR and CIS are added to those of Russia, which is smaller but viewed as their political heir, e. g., here. Many mention the medals per capita, e. g., the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Sport1.at.

The following table tries to address such issues by providing all the relevant information at a glance: the number of medals and participations, the average number of medals and golds per Games, the number of medal count victories and gold count victories (also per Games), and the average number of people per medal and per gold (rounded). The latest available population data is used for the per capita entries - maybe one should instead average out the medal per capita data for all years when the nation participated. In separate rows marked by asterisks* (below the blue line), the data is also provided for countries / organizations that had several National Olympic Committees in the past, such as Germany (East, West), USSR/CIS, and the EU, to the extent that these are widely recognized and a general interest in such matters is reflected by other articles inside and outside of Wikipedia. Light background colors gold, silver, bronze indicate rankings in various categories. For example, East Germany leads in the category "average number of medals per capita", the USA in the categories "absolute number of medals" and "gold count wins" (ignoring the EU as a whole), the USSR in the categories "medals per Games" and "medal count wins per Games", Norway in the category "medal count wins per capita", etc. The table is limited to medal count winners; nevertheless it might serve as a role model for extended tables encompassing all nations. Medalstats 14:18, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

All Time Olympic Medal Statistics (Winter & Summer): Medal Count Winners Only
				Total	Number of Games	Medal count wins	Gold count wins	Medals per Games	Gold per Games	Medal count wins per Games	Gold count wins per Games	People in millions	People per medal per Games (1000s)	People per gold per Games (1000s)
Greece	44	60	54	158	45	1	0	4	1	2%	2%	11	3,100	11,200
Sweden	190	190	225	605	44	2	1	13	4	5%	2%	9	650	2,100
United Kingdom	206	255	263	724	45	1	1	16	5	2%	2%	60	3,700	13,100
France	235	235	275	745	45	1	1	17	5	2%	2%	63	3,800	12,100
Norway	155	146	127	428	42	6	6	10	4	14%	14%	5	441	1,200
East Germany	202	189	172	563	11	1	1	51	19	9%	9%	16	310	870
Germany	223	228	235	686	20	5	4	34	11	25%	20%	82	2,400	7,300
United States	1020	818	701	2539	44	13	16	58	23	30%	36%	298	5,200	12,900
Soviet Union	473	376	355	1204	18	13	13	67	26	72%	72%	293	4,400	11,200
CIS	54	44	37	135	2	1	1	68	27	50%	50%	293	4,300	10,900

Soviet Union+CIS*	527	420	392	1339	20	14	14	67	26	70%	70%	293	4,400	11,100
Germany (all)*	520	541	546	1607	31	13	8	34	11	42%	26%	82	1,600	4,900
European Union*	2195	2179	2582	6956	45	44	44	154	49	98%	98%	460	3,000	9,400