The Games

Sports and politics. Every edition of the Games the discussion about sports and politics will be actual and even the most fanatic defenders of the Olympic Spirit will not deny that there always was and will be a relationship between sports and politics.

A breathtaking spectacle has been presented to us with the now just ended Games. It was bigger than ever, more beautiful than ever, more expensive than ever. The future king of the Netherlands, a proud member of the IOC, expressed his worries about the cost for bringing the Olympic flame from one city to another but I did not notice any comments on the cost for the rest of the Games. And without any doubt it was and will be a big promotion for the organizing country. I am very curious how the United Kingdom will do their thing in 2012. It is close to our home and we, the Dutch, will get our share in this without any doubt. And if we can get the Games to our country in 2028 we will show the world in what way a small country can be big. But for now the Games have ended. Time for some analysis and deeper thoughts.

Sports and politics. Since some time "Global Warming" seems to be the hot topic for all politicians in the world. Quite some journalists have confronted us with their visions on the bad quality of air above Beijing. It could even be of big influence on the achievements of our sportsmen. The new religion has spread over the world since some time and already has its own global accepted high priest who has been awarded with an Oscar and a Nobel Prize. Just for saying his prayers. But if the environment would not have been causing enough worries we always could have fallen back to human rights.

G.W. Bush, the great leader in the fight for human rights showed his worries the day before the Games started. With this he actually opened the true Game behind the Games: global distraction of attention. Georgia was supported to show it's power in its struggle to bring the dissidents in Ossetia back to order. Unfortunately those guys are protected by their Russian friends and so the Russians did exactly what the USA and their Georgian ally wanted them to do. As a consequence of this the world, lead by the great people from the USA, started to shout to big brother who was only reacting on the fact that his little brother was hurting him and his friends. As a result of this the USA can have one of their war toys in a Georgian harbor, disguised for bringing humanitarian help. And the rest of the world? They didn't see it because the Games were of greater importance. It is the old fashioned Game for bringing the new president in the ring. After effectively having dealt with Hillary, Barack will be brought to his knees. How is McCain's relation again with Georgia? But in the mean time the Netherlands can show their sympathy with the poor Georgians. Isn't that their obligation with the president's Dutch wife? Republicans vs. Democrats: 1 - 0. And Europe? Again one step closer to their own end?

But I was talking about the Games. Everything was about medals. And the US showed again their overwhelming power. Unfortunately the Chinese achieved better results but don´t they have a population that is more then four times bigger then that of the US? And this justification brings me to the idea to weigh the ranks with the sources. Just to find out what country deals best with them.

The primary source for good sportsmen is of course the population of a country. Very interesting is the ranking of the Olympic superpowers when corrected for the number of people they have available in their country. Both the US and China suffer a dramatical drop in ranking. China only achieves the 66th place in the ranking, the US do not come higher then the 44th place. Jamaica is number one, followed by the Bahamas and Iceland.

The secondary, but equally important source for having good sportsmen is money. Our western societies are willing to pay a lot for that. With sports facilities that are payed for by local and national governments and sportsmen that receive big donations from sponsors, the western world has some advantage over the countries that do not have these facilities. Training under good circumstances is quite expensive. Linking the results of the Games to the Gross Domestic Product therefore is another ways to weigh the results.

So what are the results when corrected for the wealth of the countries? China drops down to number 45 and the US to number 72. Not so great, uh? The new leaders suddenly are Zimbabwe, Northern Korea, Mongolia and Jamaica. With very little money they are able to achieve good results. They are the true champions in economical efficiency!

Let us assume that a ranking based on population and money would be more honest. OK, I agree, in the GDP of a country population is a major component, but let us bring back the importance of money by taking the population into account as twice more valuable than money. It is actually an easy thing to do, just add the positions derived from the population correction to those derived from the GDP correction.

And the winner is ........ Jamaica! Closely followed by Mongolia and the Bahamas and on big distance on position 57 we see China, now closely followed by the US on position 61.

As a Dutchman I had to see the Dutch rankings as well and you will not be surprised that we are significantly better than our American and Chinese friends. Based on population we end on position 18, based on GDP we ended on position 48. Based on the mix we ended at position 31. Not so great either. No, the true compliments go to every individual sportsman that participated, winner or not, but the achievements of Jamaica are truly great. Congratulations Jamaica!

I wish it could be as easy as this in all situations to rip of the mask of the guys who pretend to be the best. Actually "the best" are less then mediocre! Why don't we have Olympics for politicians?
Last but not least a remark about the countries that worry me by ending in the absolute tail of the group. India, not the smallest country in the world, is sadly ending at the lowest ranked place, closely followed by countries as Venezuela, South Africa, Mexico and Israel. I feel great concerns for their and our future if we cannot find the reason for their achievements in an open dialogue. Isn't it time that we try to get them involved in our game before it's too late?