RIO DE JANEIRO — With the Olympics well into its second week, the medal count once again has some familiar faces at the top of the chart with the U.S., the U.K. and China in the top three positions.
At first glance it may look impressive, but when you look at their medal counts through some different lenses, other pictures start to emerge.
When it comes to population per gold medal, China is actually ranked 44th, the U.S. 28th and the U.K. 12th. The real winners here are Fiji with its one gold and a population of 892,145, and Jamaica with its two golds and population of 2,725,941.
If you look at weighted medals per GDP (ie. Gold is worth more than silver, which is worth more than bronze), then things look even more different: Grenada, Fiji and North Korea are the leaders in this category.
When we look at the medal count this way, guess the U.S. and China aren’t really all that.