While exceptional USA is heralded as savior of the world and "greatest nation ever in the history of earth," by Hillary Clinton, it appears Goldman Sachs disagrees… when it comes to The Olympics. From an 'efficiency' perspective, controlling for how populous, rich (income per capita), and 'efficient' they are, Russia is the greatest olympic sporting nation (and ironically Greece is worst)…
Via Francesco Garzarelli and Lorenzo Incoronato of Goldman Sachs:
The Top Olympian: An Economist’s Pick
Just like people, some countries are more ‘sporty’ than others. To qualify this statement, we look at the share of Olympic medals (over the total contested) won by each country participating in the Games between 1980 and 2012. We then measure the relative performance of countries controlling for how populous, rich (income per capita), and ‘efficiently run’ they are. Efficiency here is defined via a series of economic, political and institutional traits captured by our proprietary Growth Environment Scores (GES). We also account for a ‘host country’ effect.
The accompanying chart ranks the 10 top and the 10 bottom countries in all sports disciplines once the controls mentioned above are applied. Columns are labelled with the average number of medals won by the country between 2000 and 2012.
Countries which have conquered less than three medals over the past 4 summer Olympics have been excluded. As can be seen, among all countries taking part in the Olympics, US, China and Russia appear to be punching above their weight, especially over the past 4 editions of the Games. By contrast, Greece, Australia, Venezuela, in particular, have a poor sporting performance in relation to what economic indicators say they could achieve.
We then look at top and bottom performers among the Euro area countries. Being a more homogeneous bunch (given their shared institutions), this may enhance the statistical quality of the results. Among this group of countries, controlling for their population, income and broader efficiency, the top country in terms of physical sporting prowess is France, followed by Netherlands and Italy. Greece – birthplace of the Olympics – is instead lagging behind.
Olympic athletes: Indoor or outdoor types?
Some countries are more successful than others at indoor disciplines, while some excel in open air activities. To track this, we count the number of medals each country has won in indoor sports as share of total medal count in indoor sports for all countries since the 1996 Olympic Games.
In this context, some countries are more ‘specialized’ in indoor disciplines. We look at the medal count in indoor disciplines as share of total medals won by each country. As can be seen in the chart below, in China, Japan and Korea athletes seem to perform better in indoor sports than outdoor ones. By contrast, the most outdoor sportsmen appear to be those of the UK, Brazil and Germany.
Some countries are better fighters: in boxing, wrestling, judo and taekwondo, most medals are won by Asian countries. Japan appears to be a specialist: on average 51% of its medals are in these four Olympic disciplines.
Team-oriented or individualist athletes?
Some countries fare better at team sports than others. In relation to the total medal count in team sports, Germany excels, followed by Australia and Great Britain. At the other extreme are the large Asian countries like China, Japan and South Korea.
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Perhaps this is why Washington pushed so hard to get Russia banned from the Olympics.
via http://ift.tt/2aufCao Tyler Durden