London Olympics wrap up: Australia is a world beater!
bodawei
August 14, 2012 at 07:02 AM posted in General Discussion
Australia had its worst Olympics since the American Civil War, but we still managed to beat everyone else on the planet.
Statistician Brian Dawes has formulated the only true and just statistical representation of Olympic medal performance.
Dawes calls it the MAP methodology. "Based on a crafty combination of medals won, athletes in your team, and your country's population, I am please to advise that the real winner of the London Olympics is Australia!"
Using the formula, medals won multiplied by athletes in your team divided by home count population (MAP), here are the top four:
Australia 632
Great Britain 565
Hungary 268
Russia 250
Team USA scored a measly 175, and China only 23.
darkstar94
August 15, 2012 at 10:24 PM
yeah... when it comes down to it we really do love each other...
darkstar94
August 14, 2012 at 11:05 PM
this one is slightly different, but more or less the same:
http://www.medalspercapita.com/
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 10:28 PM
could be mate [unless it's Baba blocking inappropriate material subconsciously...possibly a problem for all true-blue dinky-di's]
got another link darkstar ? promise I'll try my hardest on that one too ;)
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Trying as hard as I possibly can here, but for some strange reason can't get that link to work ;)
kimiik
August 14, 2012 at 07:27 AM
That's not really fare.
Actually, they should divide the number of medals won by the GDP.
bodawei
August 14, 2012 at 08:35 AM
Oh hang on, I did my arithmetic using GDP per capita. We would go okay if you divide by GDP - we've got nothing. :)
Actually, another way to look at it is to divide by taxpayer dollars invested in elite sport - that is where Australia belly flops, crashes off the parallel bars, or whatever. I think every gold medal cost us about $20M of taxes donated by the little battlers.
An American told me proudly that not one dollar of tax goes to sport in the US. :)
bodawei
August 14, 2012 at 08:19 AM
Ouch - the Africans would win hands down. Australia would run second last behind Norway.
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 07:23 AM
haha, thanks mate. I was looking at many of those analysis tables during the games, and, at least when I was looking part way through the games, this time even the per capita one wasn't helping. Had a look at the GDP one out of interest even though I didn't think that would help us [aren't those East African runners just naturally fantastic? ]. So, dismally, couldn't find a single one that was helping. But I knew there had to be a way of looking at it in the "right" light, hehe.
"We'll take that! Go Australasia!"
..hehe, how many Aussies do you think chanted that? [barring those that have crossed the Tasman recently and are confused]
bodawei
August 16, 2012 at 03:55 PM
I went to his website and it appears that they released a podcast made in 1983 and that might account for a young sounding Garrison Keilor.
bodawei
August 16, 2012 at 03:35 AM
Oh thanks for the link, great.
Yes, I've followed Hamish and Andy a bit - Gap Year? Never heard them on radio. Popular podcasts but I already have more podcasts than I can listen to. I mainly listen to Garrison Keilor for a bit of light relief, but the most recent podcast featured someone who sounds much like him, his son? Maybe he has passed the baton.
bababardwan
August 15, 2012 at 11:23 PM
no worries mate. I enjoyed seeing it too and hadn't seen them in a long time...didn't realise they were still around but that's obviously 'cos I don't watch much telly. Like a lot of Aussie humour, not sure how well theirs travels either. I remember how confused the Americans were by Roy and HG at the Olympics in the past, but they seemed to tune in at the end from memory.
There's a whole swag more of them here:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/clarkedawe.htm
...btw, did you know it's Hamish and Andy who are the new kids on the block the last few years?
bodawei
August 15, 2012 at 02:46 PM
I could get that one and I loved it - they are the cleverest pair around at present. It is classic Clarke and Dawe. Appreciate your effort baba to find that for me.
(And sorry I am a bit tardy on responding - I have a few problems getting on to the site. It is a bit hit and miss - actually more miss than hit at present. Blame the national congress.)
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 10:51 PM
...could have been a typo though.
I hope you can get this one, just for you mate:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3559420.htm
bodawei
August 14, 2012 at 04:54 PM
Oh yeah,... 'Dawe' ... that wasn't such a good pick up at all. They are certainly a funny team, enjoyed them when they did the show on the Olympics way back when. Gina Reilly (probably have her name wrong too) was on that team. I haven't kept up - we are restricted on what we can watch on ABC by the great Australian firewall. I get a podcast The Book Show .. that's it. The ABC blocked all of their Internet feeds during the Olympics except Dig Radio - that had me puzzled. Couldn't even listen to classical music ... perhaps because the word Olympics might accidentally show up? I complained of course; it went into the bureaucracy and still haven't heard back.
The Olympics are over and services are back to normal. We can listen to classical music again. :)
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 11:10 AM
"The statistican is a bit suss in my opinion - isn't Brian Dawes the name of John Clarke's sidekick?"
haha, good pick up mate. I hadn't taken much notice of the name...used to seeing them together. It would be just the sort of commentary they'd make too..can just see it...though haven't seen them in a long time. I think Brian Dawe was the straight guy though [can still see no reason he wouldn't do it though], presumed he was from the Eastern seaboard, but it's been some time so he could easily have moved to Perth. But he was Dawe without the "s" so probably not him all the same.
bodawei
August 14, 2012 at 08:23 AM
This is pretty funny isn't it? True of course, but still funny.
The statistican is a bit suss in my opinion - isn't Brian Dawes the name of John Clarke's sidekick? Those two might be having a lend of us. (Specially as John Clarke hails from the place across the ditch.)
bababardwan
August 14, 2012 at 07:30 AM
Hey kimiik, great to see you mate. Which bit are you agreeing with?
darkstar94
August 14, 2012 at 10:29 AMThis is what I found:
http://simon.forsyth.net/olympics.html
New Zealand is third according to medals by population :D