Attention sports-hating patriots! Here you can have just the stats. [medalcount.com]

  • TooGoodToCheck

    Oh, hey, that’s me.  And as a sports-hating patriot, let me just say,  “Woooo!  We’re number 17!  Yeah!”

    I don’t even know what we got the bronze for.  But, anyway, go Canada!

    • IronEdithKidd

      Women’s synchronized diving, 3m springboard. 

  • janusnode

    As another one from the great empty realm of Canada, let me remind you that Olympic medal stats are meaningless unless they are expressed in per capita terms. China has about 39 times more people to choose from than Canada does, so unless they end up with 39  times more medals, we win.

    • http://aqfl.net Ant

       But look at Japan!

      • janusnode

        Eh, they’re OK. With a population of 127.8 million and 11 medals, they so far have one medal for every 11.6 million citizens. Both Italy (8 medals, 1/7.6 million) and France (7 medals, 1/9.3 million) are doing better than they are.

        On a per capita basis, the best country in the end is usually some very tiny country that manages to snag a single medal. I haven’t run the numbers for all the single medal countries (I have a day job), so there may be a medal leader in there.

        And just for the record, yeah, the USA (17 medals, 1/18.3 million) is beating Canada (1 medal, 1/34.4 million).

        • janusnode

          I spoke (wrote) too soon: Canada snagged another three medals (all bronze), so now we are at 1/8.6 million, thereby slaughtering our (formerly) rich neighbours to the south (not to mention Japan).

  • http://benjscott.com thunderhammer

    Basically whoever dominates swimming dominates the olympics.  

    They really need to start padding the track events.  Since swimming has breast-stroke, free style, butterfly, backstroke, and medley, at every distance imaginable, plus relays, why not add running backwards, sack racing, and perhaps running-whilst-waving-a-small-flag?

    • Daneel

      Agreed. I don’t understand the need to repeat the same events with different strokes. Just have freestyle – you’re free to do backstroke if you prefer, tough titties if you lose because you chose a slower stroke. There aren’t separate competitions for Scissors and Fosbury Flop High Jump techniques, or underarm javelin…

    • invictus

      There’s a reason for swimming being so significant: Many countries don’t have the infrastructure, so the competition is really only between the richest countries. Same with sailing and equestrian events; the cost of supporting a large amateur athlete population is prohibitive, and it is from that population that the elite athletes most commonly emerge.

      See Jul. 26th, 2012 BBC Business Daily piece on the topic:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/bizdaily

  • Peppermint

    I think I’m the contrary – I love watching (some) sports (that don’t nearly get enough airtime outside of the olympics), but I could really, really do without the patriotism.

    (Or the competition, for that matter, but that would be um, defeating the purpose I guess?)

  • adent1066

    Neat concept, but the information is a bit out of date.  AT 4:30pm EDT, it’s showing China with 15 and US with 13, CNN currently shows China with 17 and US with 17.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=557683737 Adam Greenfield

      Why not just go to http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/ ? At least it is up to date an accurate…

      • Stooge

        I would be surprised if that’s the most up-to-date source. Things may be different for LOCOG but when I worked on an Olympic site a few years ago, the one* inviolable rule was that we did not update the site with provisional results but had to wait for the official, rubber-stamped ones. In some cases the delay was measured in hours.

        *OK, there may have been more than one.

  • Chuck

    They should just go ahead and use the Metro Interface.

  • Mark Dow

    Khazakhstan Rules!

  • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

    Not even interested in the medal numbers.