The Los Angeles Times‘ Chuck Culpepper points out that Australia is really winning the Olympic medal count if you adjust for population. As of yesterday (Monday), the Aussies had a medal for every 4.1 million residents … the U.S. one for every 25.3 million.

Culpepper’s table doesn’t go beyond #10 Azerbajan, but we have a good idea who’s last. Think of a giant up-and-coming nation that’s not China.

Yes, India has one medal — albeit gold — for its 1.1 billion people. In 10 meter air rifle, which sounds like a sport the IOC meant to drop but forgot to.

Abhinav Bindra’s win is, believe it or not, India’s first-ever gold in an individual event. The last gold of any type for the country was in field hockey in 1980, and the nation has only 12 medals of all types since independence in 1947.

If they were Aussies, they’d have, oh, 268 or so by now.

Aishwarya Rai: not an Australian

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This article blames India’s consistently poor showing on excess bureaucracy (India sent 227 officials and 75 athletes to Athens), the lack of a sports culture, and the absence of a development system.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:31 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Off Topic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.