How many medals? The winner is......... USSR

Dr. Ross Tucker showed us this chart:





However, things are not always what they seem. It is always useful to do analysis past the obvious...

How many medals would the former USSR have won?

If the former Soviet Union did not break up, it would have dominated the medal count in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As of 2008, there are 15 countries that were once part of the former Soviet Union. The USSR was an Olympics powerhouse frequently winning more medals than any other country.

In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing:

• United States won the overall medal count with 110 total medals
• China, however, won significantly more gold medals (51 vs. 36 for the U.S.)
• Russia came in a distant third with 72 total medals.

If the USSR did not shatter into 15 different countries in the early 1990s, their medal count in Beijing would be staggering. As you can see in the chart below, the countries that made up the former Soviet Union won an amazing 171 medals. They did not win more gold medals than China, but their total medal haul was nearly 50% more than the next-place finisher — the United States!

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-many-medals-did-the-countries-of-the-former-ussr-win-in-the-2008-olympics.htm

Food for thought!

Maybe South Africa should split up into provinces for the Olympic Games.

Gary
:-)