Strange Maps

August 18, 2008

307 – Higher, Faster, Stronger: the Olympic Medals Map (2004)

Filed under: Uncategorized — strangemaps @ 8:56 am

It will be some days yet before the Summer Games of the XXIXth Olympiad in Beijing draw to a close, so the medal count is still not complete. Host nation China seems on course to achieve its goal of dominating the medal tables, having built up a strong lead in the number of golds, but is still slightly behind the US in the total number of medals.

This map shows the complete medal count of the previous Summer Olympics in Athens, and is one of several on this page of the New York Times website. The number of medals per country is morphed into a medal map for each of the modern-era Summer Olympics, starting with Athens in 1896.

In Athens in 2004, The US dominated the medal counts in gold, silver and overall categories. Here is an overview of the Top 10 (country; number of gold, silver and bronze medals; total), sorted by total number of medals:

 

  1. US (36, 39, 27, 102)
  2. Russia (27, 27, 38, 92)
  3. China (32, 17, 14, 63)
  4. Australia (17, 16, 16, 49)
  5. Germany (13, 16, 20, 49)
  6. Japan (16, 9, 12, 37)
  7. France (11, 9, 13, 33)
  8. Italy (10, 11, 11, 32)
  9. South Korea (9, 12, 9, 30)
  10. Great Britain (9, 9, 12, 30)

 

Host country Greece came in 15th (6, 6, 4, 16) and the bottom of the table was made up of Eritrea, Mongolia, Syria and Trinidad and Tobago, each winning just one bronze medal.

Many thanks to all who sent in this map.

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45 Comments »

  1. Very interesting map. Nicely done.
    However, i’m curious about the location of Poland and Czechoslovakia in these maps… -10 princess points for the developers ;)

    Comment by pioSko — August 18, 2008 @ 11:41 am

  2. This is an interactive map from the NYTimes, you should provide the link for everyone.

    Here it is:

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html

    Comment by John S — August 18, 2008 @ 11:43 am

  3. Doh, didn’t notice the link, nevermind

    Comment by John S — August 18, 2008 @ 11:45 am

  4. This is a great map. It highlighted a couple of things for me. One is the increase in medals that comes from hosting the Olympics. The other is how steady things have been in 1996-2004. I guess that’s because it stands in contrast to the boycotts of 1980-84.

    Comment by John Dekker — August 18, 2008 @ 11:59 am

  5. I was referring to the interactive map on the website, of course.

    Comment by John Dekker — August 18, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

  6. If one would map out the data for medals per capita the map would look very different.

    USA only 34th and China even 53rd.

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/6658v

    Anf the Bahamas on top with two medals on a population of only 317,000.

    Comment by mare — August 18, 2008 @ 1:32 pm

  7. [...] 307 – Higher, Faster, Stronger: the Olympic Medals Map (2004) [...]

    Pingback by 307 - Higher, Faster, Stronger: the Olympic Medals Map (2004) : Sophoblog — August 18, 2008 @ 2:57 pm

  8. I like how much green there is on the map… :-D Go Europe!

    Comment by marc — August 18, 2008 @ 6:51 pm

  9. It would be fun to look at this for the Winter Olympics, especially per capita so we could see the utter domination of Liechtenstein.

    Comment by Syd — August 18, 2008 @ 11:36 pm

  10. It would be more interesting if the number of medals was weighted by the population of each country…

    Comment by Fergal — August 19, 2008 @ 12:12 am

  11. [...] Stange Maps han publicado un mapa que muestra a los paises basándose en las medallas conseguidas en cada uno [...]

    Pingback by El mapa de los juegos olímpicos « ¡Qué no se diga! — August 19, 2008 @ 6:36 am

  12. Firstly, medals were only introduced in 1908 – so factually wrong.

    Secondly, did you know the AP produces 2 medals tables this year, one based solely on Golds (putting the US at the top) and one based on all 3, which gives China the edge. The US media only uses one of these, for some reason…

    Comment by Gridlock — August 19, 2008 @ 7:12 pm

  13. @12:
    Medals have been used at every Olympics. The first two used silver for first and copper for second, with the gold, silver, bronze format coming about in 1904. The IOC retroactively counts medals for those first two games using the current format.

    The AP usually uses the total medal count. Also, China has the most golds this year, not the US.

    Comment by boznia — August 19, 2008 @ 9:22 pm

  14. Gridlock: you have it backwards. China’s dominating in Gold, the US has a narrow lead in overall medals.

    Comment by Syd — August 20, 2008 @ 4:59 am

  15. I like the Olympics. For two weeks every two years, I can actually bring myself to believe that there’s some hope for humanity – that it’s really possible for people to play nice together. I’m well aware of the fact that this is not, precisely, the case, but I can fool myself into believing otherwise.

    Part of that belief is viewing the Olympics as something other than a pissing contest between nations. Maps like this don’t help.

    Comment by Terry — August 20, 2008 @ 9:32 am

  16. [...] Strange Maps Compártelo: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover [...]

    Pingback by Mapa de medallas mundiales olímpicas — August 22, 2008 @ 2:39 pm

  17. [...] Recent posts have covered maps showing how generic names for soft drinks vary by U.S. region, the 2004 Olympic medal breakdown by country, coverage areas for the genetic groups in Europe, and a tiny island kingdom just outside of Denmark [...]

    Pingback by Maponics Blog » Blog Archive » Best Cartographic Websites: Strange Maps — August 22, 2008 @ 3:55 pm

  18. And the E.U. wins with 250 medals…Ok, ok , just kidding, this country does not exist…

    Comment by lp — August 24, 2008 @ 11:07 pm

  19. I think the most accurate way to see which country has been the best at the olympics, is:
    pop. x nr. of games / medals

    Comment by h2ppyme — August 25, 2008 @ 3:00 pm

  20. @8:

    I note that alot of the green goes to Russia and other countries whose “Europeness” is disputable.

    Comment by Lurker — August 25, 2008 @ 8:33 pm

  21. EU doesn’t exist ?
    they gave me a fake passeport so ? ;)

    Comment by Maitresinh — August 26, 2008 @ 11:54 am

  22. to Maitresinh: who are these mysterious “they” ?

    Comment by lp — August 26, 2008 @ 4:40 pm

  23. Very nice, but …
    In 1988 Games (Seoul) East Germany is placed at west, and West Germany at east.
    And in Beijing 2008 Ireland seems a southern appendix of GB.

    So, the “geographic view” is probably not the correct title!

    Comment by pg — August 26, 2008 @ 8:33 pm

  24. [...] the phenomenal blog Strange Maps spotlights the animated Olympic Medals Map, the full version of which may be seen on the interactive New York Times website. Very graphically [...]

    Pingback by K Adam White » Blog Archive » A Graphic History of the Olympic Games — August 27, 2008 @ 3:15 am

  25. Why is Belarus south of the Ukraine?

    Comment by Lurker — August 27, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

  26. And the 2008 results?

    GB looks good…

    Comment by Cogidubnus — August 29, 2008 @ 11:45 pm

  27. very interesting..

    Comment by stilllway — August 30, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

  28. Where is Estland?

    Comment by stilllway — August 30, 2008 @ 5:35 pm

  29. hehe, Estland seems to be somewhere between Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Also south of Latvia…maybe people in NY thought we’d feel better in there…

    Comment by h2ppyme — August 30, 2008 @ 9:53 pm

  30. So actually EUROPE dominated the Olympic games. :)

    Comment by Bart de Boer — September 8, 2008 @ 7:23 am

  31. Lovely map but the relative positions are a bit dodgy…
    Raf
    http://uzar.wordpress.com/

    Comment by Raf Uzar — September 10, 2008 @ 8:19 am

  32. I’m sure the Turks will be mighty pleased to be included in the European color classification.

    Comment by mcmlxix — September 10, 2008 @ 11:59 pm

  33. Here’s another fun one from the NY Times:

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/business/20080907-metrics-graphic.html

    Comment by GoGoGo — September 14, 2008 @ 3:59 pm

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    Comment by online finance magazines — September 18, 2008 @ 12:36 am

  35. ooh! wow!
    http://mirretro.ru

    Comment by Новейшая история — September 22, 2008 @ 9:35 am

  36. This map is misleading since nations with more people have an advantage (more people = more athletes) and wealthy nations have an advantage (more money = better facilities and training).

    In 2004 I tried adjusting the medal counts for population and gross domestic product using a weighted average. As I recall, the most productive nations were the former members of the USSR and easter-bloc countries.

    Comment by xrayspec — November 16, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

  37. It would be cool to see this for winter olympics as well.

    Comment by Pertm — January 8, 2009 @ 3:03 pm

  38. [...] Metal Counts I found this great New York Times map of Olympic metals over the years via Strange Maps blog. Click for interactive [...]

    Pingback by Olympic Metal Counts « The Skeptic Next Door — January 11, 2009 @ 6:12 am

  39. so much dominance from 3 countries? Ah well back to the drawing boards for us Brits…
    :)

    Comment by andybolton — February 22, 2009 @ 7:07 pm

  40. Wow! Very impressive. They deserved to win the gold.

    Comment by cash for gold jewelry — March 9, 2009 @ 1:36 pm

  41. Создание музыки

    Comment by Teocaxec — March 16, 2009 @ 10:15 am

  42. thank you

    Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:46 am

  43. thanks for this map
    good 
    luck

    ….

    Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 9:02 am

  44. Vielen Dank

    Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 5:20 am

  45. Muchas gracias

    Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:43 am

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