Which countries had the best athlete-to-medal ratios at the Paralympics and Olympics?
EARLIER in the sporting summer we compiled a chart looking at countries’ historic Olympic performances and the number of competitors they had sent to the games (between 1896 and 2008) for every medal won. East Germany topped that list with a medal for every 3.3 of its Olympic athletes. We have now compiled a related set of statistics for the two parts of the 2012 games. The Paralympic ratios are smaller than the Olympic ones for various reasons. For example, over 50% more medals were up for grabs at the Paralympics than at the Olympics. And those medals were concentrated among a smaller number of countries (75) than were the Olympic medals (won by 85 nations). Teams at the Paralympics are generally smaller, too. Of particular note was the extraordinary performance of the Chinese Paralympic team, whose 291 athletes won 231 medals. But for sheer efficiency, the Fijian team—one athlete, one gold—can’t be beaten. The 295-strong British team was the biggest at the Paralympics and came third in the medal table with 34 golds, but does not even make it into the top-25 ranking of athletes-per-gold.