True Medal Count?

A few times during the Olympics our ever enthusiastic BBC TV and radio presenters commented that we were on top of the medals table when you consider the number of medals we won in proportion to the size of the country.  I noticed Hungary were doing well, and that New Zealand had a handful of medals, and I knew that their populations were significantly smaller than that from which Team GB sourced its talent from.  I couldn’t help myself, the statistics obsessed nerd within got the better of me and I did some number crunching and worked out how many golds and how many medals overall other countries would have won proportionally if they had the same population as the UK.

Number of Golds Won

1.   USA  –  46
2.   China  –  38
3.   GB  –  29
4.   Russia  –  24

Number of Golds Won Proportionally

1.   Grenada  –  593
2.   Bahamas  –  176
3.   Jamaica  –  92
11. GB  –  29
25. Russia  –  10
28. USA  –  9
48. China  –  2

Total Medals Won

1.   USA  –  104
2.   China  –  87
3.   Russia  –  84
4.   GB  –  65

Total Medals Won Proportionally 

1.   Grenada  –  593
2.   Jamaica  –  276
3.   Trinidad & Tobago  –  189
10. Montenegro  –  100
23. GB  –  65
33. Russia  –  37
49. USA  –  21
74. China  –  4

So, a lot of countries in reality did even better than the wonderful Team GB.  That’s not a bad thing, just nice to know that there must be a lot of very satisfied sports fans out there from other nations!  If you want to know how other countries fared let me know and I’ll happily divulge more numbers.

However, there were six countries with bigger populations than the UK who didn’t manage a single medal between them. They are Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Vietnam and Congo and together they have double the population of the United States.  I think this is sobering and should remind us that for a vast percentage of the world’s population there are not the resources to put into enjoying the Olympics.  As the celebrations die down we need to remember that there are things in this world that should take a higher priority than sport.

Russia & Qatar to host World Cups

Congratulations to the people of Russia & Qatar (and the rest of the Middle East).  I am really pleased for you and hope you enjoy the World Cups and that your nations benefit in a positive way.

Of course, being an Englishman, I was gutted that England did not win the vote.  And my favourite for 2022 would have been Australia.  But never mind there is no point having sour grapes and I am not writing this post out of bitterness.  However, I am disappointed with the outcome of the FIFA voting and especially that Qatar won.

Reasons Qatar should not host the World Cup

• They have no football heritage
• They have never qualified for a World Cup and only once got past the first round of the Asian Cup
• There are huge amounts of commercial opportunities for FIFA through choosing Qatar – this is not a viable reason for choosing a nation to host a tournament
• Travelling and staying in Qatar will be a nightmare for the average fan
• Qatar are super-rich and can simply build the best stadiums and complexes and would have been able to put on extraordinary hospitality for FIFA delegates – it goes against everything that was great about the World Cup in South Africa

Reasons why Qatar should host the World Cup

• It will be great for the people of the Middle East to have a home tournament.
• The stadiums look incredible!

Doha Port Stadium, Qatar

Reasons Russia should not host the World Cup

• Few people would dispute that Russia is a nation full of corruption – given the recent accusations towards FIFA one wonders if there are some dodgy dealings going on
• They have not qualified for the last two World Cups – I hate nations getting free places at tournaments when they would have been unlikely to qualify otherwise (eg Ukraine & Poland at the next European Championships)

Reasons Russia should host the World Cup

• They have a great footballing heritage – from 1958-1972 USSR made it to eight major quarter-finals and won the European Championships in 1960 (something England never did!)
• They have never hosted a major tournament before
• Many cities will benefit from hosting matches

I think us English need to get over our superiority complex.  We have no divine right to host or win major football tournaments.  Only 2 delegates voted for the England bid!  And I think we can assume one of those was our own Geoff Thompson!  That’s pretty embarrassing and shows that we must have had a very poor bid.

What are your thoughts…..?

26 Russians or Tiger Woods’ face?

Which is more important…the lives of 26 Russians or the smoothness of Tiger Woods’ face?

Well clearly, for me, it is much more important that some advertising employee may have to spend an extra half hour airbrushing Woods’ chiseled mugshot for the next Gillette advert than the fact that loads of families have been devestated by the needless deaths of loved ones in a train crash in Russia.

I was faced with two headlines when I switched on the BBC website yesterday morning.  One read, “Dozens killed in Russian train crash’.  The other read, “Golfer Woods injured in car crash’.  Which one did I automatically click on?  Yes, the Tiger Woods one.

I think this is symptomatic of two things:

1. We live in a celebrity obsessed culture that magnifies small incidents of the chosen few into world changing news items.
2. We give precidence to small ‘disasters’ in English speaking countries high over and above genuine catastrophes in the non-English speaking world.

Two very silly traits.

Why can’t North Korea test nuclear weapons?

I don’t understand why it is reported as something abhorrent in the West when North Korea (and Iran for that matter) do anything that suggests they have nuclear ambitions.  I checked up on an unnamed but highly reliable internet encyclopaedia which countries have nuclear weapons.  They are:

United States, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

North Korea have about 0.2% of the amount of nuclear weapons that are possessed by the United States.  Therefore, I don’t understand the uproar.  How come the other countries are allowed nuclear weapons but North Korea aren’t.  Could somebody please enlighten me?