2012 Alternative Medals Table

[EdithWeston]

I have just linked to the rolling GB medals tally thread an alternative interactive one which I thought might interest readers of this forum. Published by Channel 4, it let's you score a country's medals haul to social and ethical indicators such as debt, population, freedom index and CO2 emissions. It could give quite a different insight into the relative "cost" of these medals and how countries compare.

There's also this BBC article which looks at similar factors, and gives predictions for what the 2012 tally will be.

An attempt to enliven this (tumbleweed) thread...

Here's a BBC thread about the "cost" of a gold medal. It point out (inter alia) that there are some Olympic sports in which poor countries can no hope to win any medals at all (should those 4 remain Olympic sports?)

Also it lists the UK public subsidy of each sport, and shows how many medals. The big funding does go with the larger hauls (is it chicken an egg, though?)

Thanks for the links. Heard Australian on World at One on Radio 4 today, commenting on how they must celebrate those who have won any medal, not be over critical of not getting gold in their events. Must be getting near an "off with her head" level of fury back home, given the way the Australians seem to live sport 24x7 !

Loved this bit on the BBC business web page:

"But with Team GB's haul so far costing each UK taxpayer less than 10p a medal, you won't find too many Britons complaining. Add in a conservative £12bn cost of hosting the games at £400 per taxpayer, and some may not feel quite the same."

I hope they do an update of that table at the end of the London games, because otherwise they're showing only part of the picture.

I'd like funding to be reinstated for the elderly (such as my sisters and brothers in law) to still be able to go swimming free (funding ran for a year or two and was then scrapped) as sport | exercise should be for all

Yesterday walked 5 miles across parts of Merseyside after an excursion to check on laptops at Currys + Comet. Not a single public seat to sit on during my walk.

OK, I am overweight (put on 3 stone while waiting for an operation, some 15 months after first seeing GP) so the walk was good exercise, but legs like lead by the time I got home, and I gave up on the last 2.5 miles and caught a bus (it was near 22:00 by then, and I couldn't face the last 1/3, given I need to lose 6 stone!)