Beijing Olympic Gold Medal Tally Per Head of Population

"Alhambra Pollock" by Gideon Polya

Jamaica (2.222) was #1for "Gold Medals won per million of 2005 population" followed by Bahrain (#2, 1.326), Estonia (#3, 0.775), New Zealand (#4, 0.763), Mongolia (#5, 0.749), Australia (#7, 0.697); India (0.00091) came last.

India's last position should be a matter of PRIDE to Indians because it is indicative of a humanitarian mindset that says that huge investment in sport is an unconscionable indulgence in a world in which 16 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see "Global avoidable mortality": http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ )

I have illustrated this article with my huge (1.3 meter x 2.9 meter) painting entitled "Alhambra Pollock" that attempts (with an implicit 5-ring motif, like the Olympic Games) to make an artistic case for cross-cultural interactions and Amity through Art (for an expandable version and discussion see ""Alhambra Pollock" painting – Arab-Islam-West Amity through Art": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14082/42/ ).

The top 15 countries in terms of 5 or more Gold medals were the host nation China (#1, 51 Gold medals), the US (#2, 36), Russia (#3, 23), the UK (#4; 19; the next Olympic host nation), Germany (#5, 16), Australia (#6, 14), South Korea (#7, 13), Japan (#8, 9), Italy (#9, 8), France (#10, 7), Ukraine (#11, 7), the Netherlands (#12, 7), Jamaica (#13, 6), Spain (#14, 5) and Kenya (#15, 5).

For a detailed breakdown of Beijing Olympics involvement by country see: http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/countries/#K ; for 2005 demographic data see G.M. Polya, "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1905": http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; for the latest on the Beijing Olympics medal tally – subject to drug tests – see Yahoo: http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/medal-tally .

The superb 2008 Beijing Olympics finished with China leading the World in the Olympic Gold Medal tally (51 Gold) but coming second in Total Medals (100) to the US (36 Gold medals, 110 Total Medals). However in terms of "Gold Medals per Million of Population" China (0.039) was BELOW the World average (0.046) whereas the US (0.120) was ABOVE the World average.

Using 2005 population data I have set out below the Total Gold Medals, the Total Medals and the "Gold Medals per Million of Population" for all the participants in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. For clarity, I have grouped the countries in 4 categories.

Group A (countries with 2 or more Gold medals) included China (51 Gold, 100 Total Medals, 0.039 Gold Medals per Million of Population), US (36, 110, 0.120), Russia (23, 72, 0.162), the UK (19, 47, 0.319), Germany (16, 41, 0.194), Australia (14, 46, 0.697), South Korea (13, 31, 0.268), Japan (9, 25, 0.070), Italy (8, 28, 0.140), France (7, 40, 0.115), the Ukraine (7, 27, 0.146), Netherlands (7, 16, 0.429), Jamaica (6, 11, 2.222), Spain (5, 18, 0.121), Kenya (5, 14, 0.152), Belarus (4, 19, 0.408), Romania (4, 8, 0.180), Ethiopia (4, 7, 0.053), Canada (3, 18, 0.094), Poland (3, 10, 0.078), Hungary (3,10, 0.307), Norway (3, 10, 0.656), Brazil (3, 15, 0.016), Czech Republic (3, 6, 0.294), Slovakia (3, 6, 0.555), New Zealand (3, 9, 0.763), Georgia (3, 6, 0.596), Cuba (2, 24, 0.175), Kazakhstan (2, 13, 0.130), Denmark (2, 7, 0.371), Mongolia (2, 4, 0.749), Thailand (2, 4, 0.031), North Korea (2, 6, 0.087), Argentina (2, 6, 0.051), Switzerland (2, 6, 0.279), and Mexico (2, 3, 0.019).

Group B (countries gaining only 1 Gold Medal) included Turkey (1 Gold Medal, 8 Total Medals, 0.014 Gold Medals per Million of Population), Zimbabwe (1, 4, 0.077), Azerbaijan (1, 7, 0.117), Uzbekistan (1, 6, 0.037), Slovenia (1, 5, 0.505), Bulgaria (1, 5, 0.129), Indonesia (1, 5, 0.0044), Finland (1, 4, 0.192), Latvia (1, 3, 0.441), Belgium (1, 2, 0.096), Dominican Republic (1, 2, 0.111), Estonia (1, 2, 0.775), Portugal (1, 2, 0.099), India (1, 2, 0.00091), Iran (1, 2, 0.014), Bahrain (1, 0, 1.326), Cameroon (1, 0, 0.06), Panama (1, 0, 0.309), and Tunisia (1, 0, 0.100).

Group C (countries gaining no Gold medals but which nevertheless scored Bronze and/or Silver medals) included Armenia (6 non-Gold medals), Sweden (5 non-Gold medals), Croatia (5), Lithuania (5), Chinese Taipei (4), Greece (4), Nigeria (4), Austria (3), Ireland (3), Serbia (3), Algeria (2), Bahamas (2), Trinidad and Tobago (2), Colombia (2), Kyrgyzstan (2), Morocco (2), Tajikistan (2), Chile (1), Ecuador, (1), Iceland (1), Malaysia (1), Netherlands Antilles (1), Singapore (1), South Africa (1), Sudan (1), Vietnam (1), Afghanistan (1), Egypt (1), Israel (1), Mauritius (1), Moldova (1), Venezuela (1), and Togo (1).

Group D (containing countries which gained no medals at all) included Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Antigua/Barbuda, Aruba, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darusallam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Côte D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iraq, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM), Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rwanda, St Kitts/Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Yemen and Zambia.

Which Group did your country belong to and how well did it do?

Of the 55 Gold Medal-winning countries (Groups A and B) a total of 37/55 i.e. 67% have been involved in the occupation of other countries in the post-1945 era (mostly associated with European and American colonialism and imperialism). For a detailed history of the US contribution to this criminality see William Blum's "Rogue State". For a detailed history and "body count" of this horrendous burden of war, occupation, devastation and genocide imposed by imperialist powers since 1945 see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1905": http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya . 1990-2005 avoidable deaths (excess deaths, deaths that should not have happened) in non-European countries total 1.2 billion, this including a Muslim Holocaust involving 0.6 billion avoidable deaths.

In contrast, all the Medal-free Group D countries (with the exception of Peru and Saudi Arabia and the tiny European principalities of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco and San Marino) have been subject to overwhelmingly European and American colonial occupation and its horrendous consequences in the post-war era. Further, there are many countries in the other Groups that have been subject to foreign occupation and malignant foreign (mainly American) intervention in the post-1945 era.

One can sum the 1950-2005 excess deaths in all the countries occupied by foreign occupiers in the post-war era – for a country-by-country analysis see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality.html . Most of the perpetrators have been European countries and are listed below alphabetically with both their number of Gold Medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and their "body count" of 1990-2005 excess deaths in the countries they occupied as major occupiers for some time in the post-war era (excluding Germany and Japan as occupied countries): Australia (14 Gold, 2.1 million in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands); Belgium (1 Gold, 36.0 million); Ethiopia (4 Gold, 1.8 million in Eritrea); France (7 Gold, 142.3 million); Indonesia (1 Gold, 0.694 million in Timor Leste); Iraq (0 Gold, 0.1 million in Kuwait); Israel (0 Gold, 23.9 million); Netherlands (7 Gold, 71.6 million); New Zealand (3 Gold, 0.04 million in Samoa); Pakistan (0 Gold, 52.2 million in Bangladesh); Portugal (1 Gold, 23.5 million); Russia (23 Gold, 37.1 million); South Africa (0.7 million in Namibia); Spain (5 Gold, 8.6 million); Turkey (1 Gold, 0.05 million in Cyprus); the UK (19 Gold, 727.4 million); and the US (36 Gold, 82.2 million).

For the record, neither China (51 Gold medals, Iran (1 Gold medal) nor India (1 Gold medal) have occupied any other country over the last few centuries.

If there were Gold Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide, the leading Gold medallists scoring over 1 million on this 1990-2005 excess mortality score would be, in descending order, the UK, France, the US, Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Portugal and Spain … or if Gold, Silver and Bronze were given for "total body count" the UK would get Gold, France the Silver and the US the Bronze (for discussion see "No Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide. Olympic Gold Medal Tally Analyzed": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/24830/42/ .

Those familiar with notoriously corrupt "sports" such as horse racing know that there are 2 ways of succeeding, specifically (1) by investing money in quality horses and trainers and (2) by nobbling the opposition. As outlined above, two thirds of the Gold medal-winning countries have been involved (1) huge investment in sport (e.g. Australia is reported to have spent $100 million for each of its 14 Gold Medals: http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20080824/tts-australia-olympics-993ba14.html ) and (2) in the occupation and devastation of other countries (mostly impoverished African, Latin American, South Asian and Muslim countries) which in consequence do very poorly at the Olympic Games (e.g. Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars that have been associated with 25 million Indigenous Asian excess deaths).

India's last position in the Olympic Games "Gold Medals per Million of Population" list of Gold medal-winning countries should most certainly NOT be an embarrassment to Indians - it is surely indicative of a humanitarian culture that says that huge investment in sport is unconscionable in a world in which 44,000 people die avoidably EACH DAY (16 x 44,000 = 704,000 over the period of the Beijing Olympic Games) from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see "Global avoidable mortality": http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).

Saving human life is vastly more important than winning Gold Medals in a technically and morally flawed competition.

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