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SPEAKING OF INDIA, ARMENIA AND THOSE HERCULEAN AUSTRALIANS
Los Angeles Times
11:27 AM, August 12, 2008
CA
Even though Medals Per Capita trumps the fallacy of the standard Medals
Table (as seen on the right-hand side of this page) and rightfully
exalts smaller countries as a rule, let us take this opportunity to
applaud India.
This global colossus just harvested the first individual gold medal
in its Olympic history when Abhinav Bindra won the 10-meter air
rifle event, and while MPC certainly tilts toward the Lilliputians
in exquisite fairness, that doesn't preclude some sympathy for a giant.
MPC fully realizes that India, working with a staggering population
of 1,147,995,898 -- one of only two three-comma populations in the
world -- has an unforgiving road in the MPC standings, especially for
a country that has never bothered with the Olympic oomph of China,
the other billion-plus population.
India finished 75th of the 75 countries that won medals at Athens
2004, and now stands 46th of the 46 countries that have won medals
so far in Beijing.
Still, it's a giddy 46th at the moment, so let's say "hooray."
At the other extreme, the gumdrop nation of Armenia won zero medals in
2004, thus finishing in a 127-way tie behind even India. Well, let's
applaud Armenia, which just grabbed two bronzes and ascended from below
the charts all the way to No. 1 in the Tuesday MPC standings. Which,
as usual, beat the mulch out of the paltry and inexcusably lazy Medals
Table used in the Olympics.
The Medals Table had the United States first at 22 and then China
at 20, as if culling 22 medals from 303,824,646 citizens or 20 from
1,330,044,605 constituted some sort of big whoop-dee-doo.
After Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan's bronze in the men's 62-69kg
weightlifting, and Roman Amoyan's bronze in the men's under-55kg
Greco-Roman wrestling, Armenia had two medals among merely 2,968,586
citizens, or one for every 1,484,293 Armenians.
That surpassed even the Herculean Australians, who form arguably the
world's most fibrous athletic nation, and already have pared their MPC
rating to 2,060,086, despite having only 20,600,856 citizens, with
the paring surely to persist. It also made the Armenians possibly a
recurring threat to both the defending runners-up Australians and the
defending champions the Bahamians (who tend to catch up when track
and field begin).
With a nod to another former Soviet republic, the sudden No. 4
Azerbaijan, and to Koreans both North and South, here is the Medals
Per Capita top 10:
1. Armenia (2) - 1,484,293 2. Australia (10) - 2,060,086 3. Slovakia
(2) - 2,622,375 4. Azerbaijan (3) - 2,725,905 5. Finland (2)
- 2,727,704 6. North Korea (7) - 3,354,156 7. South Korea (12)
- 4,102,737 8. Austria (2) - 4,102,767 9. The Netherlands (4) -
4,161,328 10. Croatia (1) - 4,491,543
(Some select bottom-dwellers):
30. United States (22) - 14,467,840 40. China (20) - 66,502,230
46. India (1) - 1,147,995,898
-- Chuck Culpepper
Culpepper is a contributor to The Times.
Photo: Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra's mother, Babli, left, and father,
A.S.Bindra, celebrate their son's Olympic gold medal on Monday at their
residence in Zirakpur near Chandigarh, India. Credit: Associated Press
Los Angeles Times
11:27 AM, August 12, 2008
CA
Even though Medals Per Capita trumps the fallacy of the standard Medals
Table (as seen on the right-hand side of this page) and rightfully
exalts smaller countries as a rule, let us take this opportunity to
applaud India.
This global colossus just harvested the first individual gold medal
in its Olympic history when Abhinav Bindra won the 10-meter air
rifle event, and while MPC certainly tilts toward the Lilliputians
in exquisite fairness, that doesn't preclude some sympathy for a giant.
MPC fully realizes that India, working with a staggering population
of 1,147,995,898 -- one of only two three-comma populations in the
world -- has an unforgiving road in the MPC standings, especially for
a country that has never bothered with the Olympic oomph of China,
the other billion-plus population.
India finished 75th of the 75 countries that won medals at Athens
2004, and now stands 46th of the 46 countries that have won medals
so far in Beijing.
Still, it's a giddy 46th at the moment, so let's say "hooray."
At the other extreme, the gumdrop nation of Armenia won zero medals in
2004, thus finishing in a 127-way tie behind even India. Well, let's
applaud Armenia, which just grabbed two bronzes and ascended from below
the charts all the way to No. 1 in the Tuesday MPC standings. Which,
as usual, beat the mulch out of the paltry and inexcusably lazy Medals
Table used in the Olympics.
The Medals Table had the United States first at 22 and then China
at 20, as if culling 22 medals from 303,824,646 citizens or 20 from
1,330,044,605 constituted some sort of big whoop-dee-doo.
After Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan's bronze in the men's 62-69kg
weightlifting, and Roman Amoyan's bronze in the men's under-55kg
Greco-Roman wrestling, Armenia had two medals among merely 2,968,586
citizens, or one for every 1,484,293 Armenians.
That surpassed even the Herculean Australians, who form arguably the
world's most fibrous athletic nation, and already have pared their MPC
rating to 2,060,086, despite having only 20,600,856 citizens, with
the paring surely to persist. It also made the Armenians possibly a
recurring threat to both the defending runners-up Australians and the
defending champions the Bahamians (who tend to catch up when track
and field begin).
With a nod to another former Soviet republic, the sudden No. 4
Azerbaijan, and to Koreans both North and South, here is the Medals
Per Capita top 10:
1. Armenia (2) - 1,484,293 2. Australia (10) - 2,060,086 3. Slovakia
(2) - 2,622,375 4. Azerbaijan (3) - 2,725,905 5. Finland (2)
- 2,727,704 6. North Korea (7) - 3,354,156 7. South Korea (12)
- 4,102,737 8. Austria (2) - 4,102,767 9. The Netherlands (4) -
4,161,328 10. Croatia (1) - 4,491,543
(Some select bottom-dwellers):
30. United States (22) - 14,467,840 40. China (20) - 66,502,230
46. India (1) - 1,147,995,898
-- Chuck Culpepper
Culpepper is a contributor to The Times.
Photo: Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra's mother, Babli, left, and father,
A.S.Bindra, celebrate their son's Olympic gold medal on Monday at their
residence in Zirakpur near Chandigarh, India. Credit: Associated Press