Turin Medal Count Recap

Okay, while other people (the fine folks at Yahoo Sports have done a good job of this) discuss the human interest stories of Turin, from Scandinavian National Pride in hockey to retiring speedskaters to drunk downhill skiiers to fussy ice skaters, I prefer to look at the cold hard results of the medal count. After all, the Olympics is a competition where there are winners, losers, and results, and I like analyzing results, so here goes.

In order to simplify the task, I will look at some nations that performed well in the Olympics and some nations that did not perform so well. I will also try to make some regional comparisons so that we can look at the Euro-American Winter games, I mean, the Winter Olympics.

Winners:

United States:

Okay, so many people are going to be disappointed with 25 medals, which is 9 fewer than we won in Salt Lake City 4 years ago. But it is good to remember that even without hosting the Olympics and having an unfriendly crowd, we still managed to get our second highest medal total ever, that is, in the entire 80 year history of the Winter Olympics. That is huge. It proves that the US can compete in winter sports (where we are not exactly a global power) against other nations. Hopefully we can build on this in the future. If our skiing team had met expectations we could have won the medal count race with Germany. As it is, we have done better than most would have expected. We dominated the snowboarding medals and even got a bronze in curling. Sweet.

Sweeden:

Sweeden's 14 medals give it a record high amount in its history, and included a gold medal in hockey as well as 7 gold medals over all. Sweeden managed to be successful in cross country, curling, and the biathalon as well. Sweeden managed to do itself proud, and had some head-to-head victories against Norway, a generally much more heralded neighbor.

Finland:

Finland's 9 medals are a huge haul for the small nation, which did not have any gold medals but managed strong performances in hockey and ski jumping (where it got 2 silver medals). To put it in persepctive, Finland got alomst as many medals as China, which is a lot bigger. That's something to be proud of, for the Finns.

Let's Hear It For The Small Nations of Eastern Europe:

Estonia got 3 golds medals (!) in this year's Olympics, all in Cross Country. The Czech Republic got four medals, including a gold and two silver. Croatia ended up with a gold and two silver for three total medals, all in alpine skiing. Poland ended up with a silver and a bronze. The Ukraine got two bronze medals. Belarus got a silver medal, as did Bulgaria and Slovakia. Even little Latvia ended up with a bronze medal. While these nations did not end up with a lot of medals, any medal in these nations is something to celebrate. These nations managed to upstage larger rivals in some events, and even with minimal funding ended up getting solid results. This will hopefully bolster their attempts to compete on a global stage in the future.

Losers:

Non-north American English Speaking Nations:

Other than the US (25 medals) and Canada (24 medals), English speaking nations did not fare well in this Olympics. Australia managed only two medals and Great Britain managed only 1, even losing in curling to the United States in the bronze medal men's game (ouch). While Australia picked up only its second Winter Olympics gold ever, Great Britain's pitiful performance was a major diappointment.

Italy:

Okay, the host nations are expected to threaten for the leadership of the medal count at the Olympics, and Italy only managed 11 medals. Obviously, the home team is disappointed with throwing away their best chance for Olympic dominance. People failed to show up for marquee events, there was a major doping scandal, and no one other than the Poles enjoyed the food. All in all, the Italians did a poor job all around. Shame.

Norway:

Okay, in most nations 19 medals would be a success, but the Norwegians are used to dominating these games, and that did not happen. Norway ended up with only 2 gold medals, fewer than Estonia (see above). That has to hurt. One wonders what Norway did wrong to even fail in those events, like cross country and the biathalon, where it traditionally excels. Something is rotten indeed in the state of Norway.

Regional Comparison in Medal Count:

Europe: 21 nations (Germany, Austria, Russia, Norway, Sweeden, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Poland, the Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Slovakia, Latvia), 178 medals (60 gold, 58 silver, 60 bronze). Verdict: Very impressive.
North America: 2 nations (US, Canada), 49 medals (16 gold, 19 silver, 14 bronze). Verdict: Not too shabby.
Asia/Australia: 4 nations (China, South Korea, Australia, Japan), 25 medals (10 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze). Verdict: Eh.
The rest of the world: Zero, zip, nada.