Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
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I found this interesting so I did some very quick calculations. Canada is primarily a Nordic nation (australia the opposite) so we should not do as well as them in the summer Olympics but we should be better in Winter etc.
Using 2 random European Nations where they have both summer and winter sports played on a par with Canada I did these calculations based on place finish for both the summer and winter games.
Canada - 33 million pop.
1996 22 medals - 11th place (based on total medal count)
1998 15 medals - 5th place
2000 14 medals - 17th place
2002 17 medals - 4th place
2004 12 medals - 18th Place
2006- 24 medals - 3rd place
average finish
9.6th Place
Austria - 9 million pop.
1996 - 3 medals 40th place
1998 - 17 medals 4th place
2000 - 3 medals - 48th place
2002- 17 medals - 4th place
2004 - 7 medals - 27th place
2006 - 23 medals - 4th place
Average finish
21st
France - 64 million pop.
1996 37 medals -6th place
1998 - 8 medals 11th place
2000 - 38 medals - 6th place
2002 - 11 medals - 8th place
2004 - 33 medals - 7th place
2006 - 9 medals - 12th place
Average finish
8.3 place
Australia with a predominate summer sport culture and 12 months a year to train and have people gain interest in the sport generally does better than us in the summer olympics but here is their medal count for the last few winter olympics
1998 - 1
2002- 2
2006 - 2 medals.
I guess what we have to compare is apples to apples. All in all based on our climate and population size we fair pretty well at the Games. Top 10 based on summer and winter added together and being only the 36th most populous nation.
I would like to see some more comparisons if somebody has more time than me.