60 Comments »

1. Wait, am I saying that wrong? Should it be like “capita per medals”?

   Comment by Phil — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 5:20 pm

2. I think it should.

   Comment by M — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 5:22 pm

3. Capita per medals

   Comment by Correction — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 5:58 pm

4. Medals per capita

   Comment by Correction to my correction :p — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 5:58 pm

5. Syökää hyvät ihmiset makkaraa

   Comment by Jyrki Sukula — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 5:59 pm

6. Haha! In your face, Sweden!

   

   Comment by charles — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 6:16 pm

7. Now THAT is the correct way to display sports achievements. Put things into perspective nicely.

   Comment by A Finn — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 6:35 pm

8. Rats! If Palander had looked where he was going, we’d have beaten Switzerland, too.

   Comment by Anonymous — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 6:37 pm

9. Medals per capita

   What they said.

   Comment by gopha — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 6:37 pm

10. You should at least weight the medals so that a gold earns more than a bronze etc.

    Comment by Topias — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 6:46 pm

11. Now next, you should make a comparison GNP $/ medal

    Comment by Mikko S�rel� — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 8:20 pm

12. Hey, this is the Winter Olympics, you should get points knocked off for actually having access to regular snow!

    Comment by bodybag — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 8:45 pm

13. “Hey, this is the Winter Olympics, you should get points knocked off for actually having access to regular snow!”

    If that’s the case i think Finland should get extra points in the Summer Olympics because of the lack of summer

    Comment by Christian — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 9:19 pm

14. Estonia is in a third place, holy cow!

    Comment by conan — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 9:24 pm

15. For the next games, everybody, except the athletes, move to Sweden NOW.

    Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 9:47 pm

16. I think it was in Lake Placid in 1980 when a couple of alpinists from Liechtenstein earned some medals. THAT year this per capita table would have looked impressive ;-).

    Comment by Fürst — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 10:17 pm

17. The true glory days are over but Finland is still the most sucessful country in the Olympics over time per capita. See:
    http://www.olympic.it/english/medal/id_overall.htm

    Comment by Christian — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 11:03 pm

18. Estonia, fuck yeah, comin again to kick your ass in cross country skiing, yeah… (sung to the melody of the theme song for Team America:World Police)

    Comment by giustino — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 11:20 pm

19. Christian, how do you make that from the table? I still bet that would be Liechtenstein. Population: 34,000. Number of medals: 9. That would be altogether less than 3,800 people per an Olympic medal achieved. For the same proportion, Finland should have achieved around 1400 medals instead of the 400+ we do have. Also, GDR (R.I.P.) is ahead of us thinking the period when they could actually participate is far shorter.

    Anyway, these are just stupid statistics. China, India and other big countries will always look bad here. It doesn’t matter if China for example had the best 100 sports(wo)men in a given discipline, there would still be a maximum of 1-2-3-4 athletes from there that would be allowed to participate.

    Comment by Fürst — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 11:25 pm

20. right. in order for the u.s. to have had the same medals per capita, it would have had to won over 500 medals. unfortunately, there are less than 250 available per country per year…

    Comment by jimmmy — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 11:57 pm

21. Fürst has a point. And there’s another thing. The latest form of gold-plated human trafficking is for Middle Eastern countries to buy up reasonably talented Kenyan and Tanzanian long-distance runners, a couple of decent coaches, and create a medal-winning track and field team. Oman’s already had success with this format, or was it Bahrain or the U.E.A? I forget. That’s not to say Finland isn’t averse to a bit of the same, though I guess Eduard Hämäläinen did have maybe one or two Finnish genes. And the Brits had a notorious case a while back in Zola Budd, who was South African until the Daily Mail spotted a good story. Of course, Britain has had the advantage of Empire, being able to round up lots of useful runners and others that way. Technically speaking, I guess most tennis professionals and F1 drivers these days ought to be Monagasque citizens, but if they’ve got buckets of loot the rules don’t seem to matter. There have also been quite a few American sprinters who weren’t awfully good (like they were about 55th in the U.S. rankings), who found other countries ever so willing to take them on - and of course THEY liked it, too, because they were guaranteed a run (and a shot at a medal) if they were wearing a Finnish or a Dutch shirt.

    Comment by runners for sale — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 12:05 am

22. I would like to point out for the record that i did not submit comment 17.

    The comment name thingy seems to be a little bit buged..

    Comment by Christian — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 2:16 am

23. Here’s an interesting list regarding the comment by ‘runners for sale’:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nationality_transfers_in_athletics

    Comment by rePt — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 10:16 am

24. This should make Finland feel a little better about their Winter Olympics results
    Yes, because nothing makes Finns feel better than knowing they’ve been beaten by Norway and Estonia.

    -BM

    Comment by Badgermushroom — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 10:22 am

25. Actually, Norway does have an impressive number of medals for its size - only half a million or so smaller than Finland, but over twice as many medals.

    -BM

    Comment by Badgermushroom — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 10:24 am

26. About Medals per Capita:

    Already last week (feb. 20) Helsinki TImes featured an article also based on the ‘Medals per Capita’- definition.

    It is titles:

    ‘Golden Estonians’
    http://oobio.tripod.com/helsinkitimes/index.blog?entry_id=1418052

    “By the same calculation, The US should win 665 gold medals for it’s inhabitants to enjoy the same 1 out of 445,000 chance to be a gold medal winner”

    Comment by Oobio — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 1:05 pm

27. Here is a blog of a Canadian living in Finland - she’s got some good commentary on the Olympics. http://spaces.msn.com/carmenbk/

    Comment by Barbara — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 1:32 pm

28. Some good Olympic commentary - http://spaces.msn.com/carmenbk/

    Comment by - — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 1:34 pm

29. Sorry for the double post - the first one didn’t appear right away

    Comment by - — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 1:35 pm

30. Norway rules!

    Comment by Tommy — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 11:39 pm

31. You overlook a major factor in this…For example, while the US may have a huge number of citizens in comparison to Finland, a vast majority of them have no access to winter sports. Not too many skiers come from Texas or Florida. By contrast, I would say that nearly all Finns have been forced to ski during school, or at least live in a climate where it can be practiced…Look at Canada for instance, larger population, and practically all live in a four-season environment….they pulled in a lot of medals for their size(ranked #7)

    Comment by Kai — Wed, Mar 1st, 2006 @ 1:39 pm

32. It might be worth Kai learning that Finland doesn’t actually have any mountains, either, but still got a silver medal in the women’s GS, and should have got one in the men’s slalom. By your argument, Britain, as an island, should be chock-full of Olympic swimming gold medallists, and Annika Sorenstam shouldn’t be the world’s best female golfer. Simply “having access” doesn’t make for World Champions. Otherwise Finland would win every rowing event going: nearly everyone can row. Tell the curling team how easy it was for them - “Hey, your country is full of ice…”

    And an Australian won the moguls. Go work that one out.

    Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Mar 1st, 2006 @ 4:22 pm

33. 9 medals is average for Finland, not bad at all.

    But this list makes it feel even worse. It shows so clearly how Norway and even Estonia beat us! Terrible!

    But you know Phil, in the _official_ medal count, gold medals rule. And this time Finland is always at the bottom of the list with zero (0) gold medals, no matter how you count it.

    It’s really the lack of gold medals that bothers people.
    Sweden stole even the last one from us!
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Winter_Olympics_medal_count

    Comment by Repe — Thu, Mar 2nd, 2006 @ 1:17 am

34. It might be worth anonymous learning that Kai lives in and knows rather well the geography of Finland, and it also might be worth knowing that Finland technically has no mountains but does have slopes that are raced upon for world cup events (Levi)…

    Access wasn’t meant to only include geographic but rather cultural. Every child in Finland skis. Actually, many of them hate it because they have to. But it’s culturally prevalant, unlike in e.g. Miami. Your sarcastic (and not at all funny) responses concerning curling and British swimmers are typically shallow for your demographic, which I would imagine is 25-35, male with too much free time who probably belongs to a fitness club…..

    Of course there are always going to be exceptions and freak happenings like Austrailians winning gold medals in skiing.

    Comment by Kai — Thu, Mar 2nd, 2006 @ 3:26 pm

35. Making the suggestion that a wealthy country like the United States, with a high degree of available internal mobility, would be somehow hamstrung by its climate was so ridiculous and so trumped-up as to require sarcasm. The populations alone of states having snow or conditions suitable for performing winter sports (some of which are in any case indoor events) far outnumber those of a country such as Finland or Norway. As you well know.

    It is also one thing to have a sport that its taken as read and taken for granted by the population - namely cross-country skiing, or for that matter rowing - and to have a programme in that country that produces world-beaters at it. Culturally, the Finns, who can also skate in large numbers, don’t forget, have not shown any great enthusiasm in recent years for speed skating, whereas a country with far less by way of “ice credentials”, such as the Netherlands, regards it as a significant sport. By the same token, the Dutch - great cyclists all - have not shone in the Tour de France, with the exception of the great Joop Zoetemelk. So much for “culturally prevalant” (sic).

    And Finland has ONE slope in Levi that has ONCE been raced upon for a female WC slalom event. I hardly imagine Tanja Poutiainen, Kalle Palander & co. do much training there.

    If you blithely accept that of course there are always going to be exceptions like Australians, you should also accept the possibility that the winner could come from Miami or from Phoenix.

    The pursuit of excellence in anything is very much an individual matter: finding an idol to emulate causes people to scale greater heights than merely having the cultural or climatic background. This was proved beyond all doubt by the Sweden of the 1970s. A country with no traditions of tennis-playing suddenly turned out a string of world-beating professionals in the wake of one national hero who learnt the game by banging a ball against a wall. It is much more likely that Finns will do well in future at sports like Alpine skiing because of Poutiainen’s or Palander’s example than because they have snow to work with.

    And as for demographics, not even close and no cigar.

    Comment by Anonymous — Thu, Mar 2nd, 2006 @ 4:22 pm

36. How possible is it for people in the US to move around? High degree of internal mobility? Not for all, even most….Not what I saw in New Orleans recently…

    And, the Dutch have the ice credentials; you should really have done your homework. Skating the canals is as Dutch as wooden shoes and windmills…it is precisely this culture

    The argument(I don’t even know what exactly its about) is pointless…medal counts are pointless, just as medal counts per capita….Brazil didn’t get any medals apparently; they must have some ´poor atheletes,,,

    Comment by Kai — Fri, Mar 3rd, 2006 @ 8:56 am

37. I think we all know why Sweden is best at ishockey (and ping-pong for that matter)…http://media.putfile.com/Meanwhile-in-Sweden

    Comment by zack — Fri, Mar 10th, 2006 @ 10:07 am

38. fictb qvgpsx ksfjw kalnwvj

    Comment by Free Vintage Video — Sat, Aug 9th, 2008 @ 11:03 pm

39. ulgprob

    Comment by Anton Video Bondage — Sat, Aug 9th, 2008 @ 11:29 pm

40. hoij

    Comment by Awesome Videos Adult — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 2:31 am

41. zymisp eogxy ajdm

    Comment by Busty Cop Video — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 2:32 am

42. rxyhdeu smtua pyquie

    Comment by Free Porn Cam Young Teen — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 7:05 am

43. vhdnu

    Comment by Free Full Length Porn Mpeg Movies — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 8:41 am

44. epxmjo ohtk

    Comment by Dancer Topless Video — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 10:20 am

45. fyuvew lifje wgeiro

    Comment by Asian Grope Video — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 1:05 pm

46. aslmd zlmwr

    Comment by Lesbian Training Videos — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 5:02 pm

47. tmioq

    Comment by Britney Naked Video — Sun, Aug 10th, 2008 @ 9:46 pm

48. falv bzvwkf

    Comment by Strip Videos Teen — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 12:11 am

49. vancweg ipnf

    Comment by Free Slut Sex Video — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 1:32 am

50. dpsnqmo tarx

    Comment by Hispanic Adult Video — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 1:41 am

51. nbxhacl

    Comment by Gross Sex Videos — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 2:55 am

52. mdkruni

    Comment by Busty Grandma Video — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 5:33 am

53. lpony

    Comment by Adult Video Hot — Mon, Aug 11th, 2008 @ 8:39 am

54. avyw pedhwt jvzdfam lrfjc

    Comment by African Com Hot Sex — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 7:16 am

55. seftb jwfl hsnj

    Comment by Adult Sex Theater — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 7:23 am

56. sniopq dwus gbqs

    Comment by Amateur Home Private Sex Teenager Video — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 7:24 am

57. emniw fsqjzw

    Comment by Amateur Office Sex — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 7:51 am

58. cdkj ostykeu dhmrfa kjcfev

    Comment by Amisha Patel Sex Photo — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 8:12 am

59. kflqp kecmqw frozi

    Comment by Best Sex Position For Getting Pregnant — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 12:59 pm

60. ijcopsy

    Comment by Black Ebony Free Movie Sex — Fri, Aug 15th, 2008 @ 1:29 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Mini Phillip

Get your own WidSets Pet