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Who's the Best? printable sheet
Who's the Best? medal table CSV file
Which countries are most "sporty"?
Below, we have provided the London 2012 Olympics medal table.
Do you think the medals table alone offers enough information to answer this question fairly?
What other information do you think could be taken into account?
Make a plan of the information you will collect and the calculations you will perform. Then carry out your plan to decide which countries are most sporty.
Send us your top-rated countries, together with your justification for the data and criteria you chose to include in your analysis.
In the London 2012 Olympics the final medal table was as follows (spreadsheet CSV form)
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 46 | 28 | 29 | 103 |
| China | 38 | 28 | 22 | 88 |
| Great Britain | 29 | 17 | 19 | 65 |
| Russia | 24 | 25 | 32 | 81 |
| South Korea | 13 | 8 | 7 | 28 |
| Germany | 11 | 19 | 14 | 44 |
| France | 11 | 11 | 12 | 34 |
| Italy | 8 | 9 | 11 | 28 |
| Hungary | 8 | 4 | 6 | 18 |
| Australia | 7 | 16 | 12 | 35 |
| Japan | 7 | 14 | 17 | 38 |
| Kazakhstan | 7 | 1 | 5 | 13 |
| Netherlands | 6 | 6 | 8 | 20 |
| Ukraine | 6 | 5 | 9 | 20 |
| New Zealand | 6 | 2 | 5 | 13 |
| Cuba | 5 | 3 | 7 | 15 |
| Iran | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| Jamaica | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| Czech Republic | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| North Korea | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Spain | 3 | 10 | 4 | 17 |
| Brazil | 3 | 5 | 9 | 17 |
| South Africa | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Ethiopia | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Croatia | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Belarus | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 |
| Romania | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| Kenya | 2 | 4 | 5 | 11 |
| Denmark | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Azerbaijan | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 |
| Poland | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 |
| Turkey | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Lithuania | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Norway | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Canada | 1 | 5 | 12 | 18 |
| Sweden | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
| Colombia | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Georgia | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Mexico | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Ireland | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Argentina | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Serbia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Slovenia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Dominican Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Uzbekistan | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Latvia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Algeria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Bahamas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grenada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Uganda | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Venezuela | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| India | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Mongolia | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Thailand | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Egypt | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Armenia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Finland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Bulgaria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Estonia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Puerto Rico | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Chinese Taipei | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Botswana | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gabon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Guatemala | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Montenegro | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Portugal | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Moldova | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Qatar | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Singapore | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Afghanistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Bahrain | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kuwait | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Morocco | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Tajikistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Notes and Background
The Plus article Harder, better, faster, stronger explores some of the same ideas as this problem.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.