An anarchist is an uncomprimising liberal.
Olympic Spin: Jamaica on top, China in 45th
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Image © Beau Bo D'Or |
Even if, like me, you have studiously avoided watching any of the Olympic coverage, you will probably have seen the odd medals table on a news program or something. They all show the glorious People's Republic beating the evil Empire and its Poodle into second and third place respectively. But hang on, the host nation is the largest nation on earth by population and, whether or not there has been any cheating, such as using babies in the gymnastics or whatever, the simple fact is that their human resources are vast. So, as a completely meaningless bit of fun, I have compared the medals table (at least those nations who have won golds) with their respective populations.
Looking at it this way, we find Jamaica in first place with tiny Bahrain in second. Georgia beats Russia by a mile. Team GB are down in 15th place, but that is well ahead of Russia (25), the United States (29) and the Glorious People's Fatherland is way down at 45th out of 53 countries who won any gold medals at all.
Eat your pants, China! If they had won just one gold, Taiwan would have beaten you by a country mile!
Here's the full list:
| Country | Rank (Golds) | Rank (all medals) |
| Jamaica | 1 | 1 |
| Bahrain | 2 | 14 |
| Estonia | 3 | 10 |
| New Zealand | 4 | 4 |
| Georgia | 5 | 13 |
| Australia | 6 | 6 |
| Slovakia | 7 | 16 |
| Slovenia | 8 | 3 |
| Latvia | 9 | 18 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 17 |
| Belarus | 11 | 7 |
| Mongolia | 12 | 23 |
| Denmark | 13 | 15 |
| Panama | 14 | 44 |
| Great Britain | 15 | 24 |
| Czech Republic | 16 | 29 |
| Switzerland | 17 | 26 |
| Korea | 18 | 28 |
| Norway | 19 | 12 |
| Finland | 20 | 30 |
| Romania | 21 | 40 |
| Cuba | 22 | 8 |
| Germany | 23 | 36 |
| Bulgaria | 24 | 27 |
| Russian Fed. | 25 | 38 |
| Azerbaijan | 26 | 20 |
| Italy | 27 | 37 |
| Ukraine | 28 | 34 |
| United States | 29 | 42 |
| Hungary | 30 | 21 |
| Tunisia | 31 | 63 |
| Portugal | 32 | 56 |
| Canada | 33 | 33 |
| Spain | 34 | 48 |
| DPR Korea | 35 | 49 |
| Poland | 36 | 53 |
| France | 37 | 32 |
| Zimbabwe | 38 | 43 |
| Japan | 39 | 55 |
| Kazakhstan | 40 | 25 |
| Cameroon | 41 | 71 |
| Kenya | 42 | 52 |
| Ethiopia | 43 | 68 |
| Uzbekistan | 44 | 50 |
| China | 45 | 66 |
| Argentina | 46 | 62 |
| Thailand | 47 | 77 |
| Iran | 48 | 78 |
| Turkey | 49 | 60 |
| Brazil | 50 | 67 |
| Mexico | 51 | 81 |
| Indonesia | 52 | 79 |
| India | 53 | 85 |
Now, after all the spin, I wonder how many of the Chinese gold medalists are going to have bits amputated by the Glorious Central Committee of the People's Games so that they might also win in the Paralympics?
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About Jock

Name: Jock Coats
Age: 40s
Lives: Oxford, UK
Works: IT Development, Oxford Brookes University, where I am also a Warden in a hall of residence and was previously a staff elected Governor of the University and Academic Board member. For a few years I was also a local Oxford City Councillor. I've just started an undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics too!
I am a card carrying Lib Dem, but am a confirmed market-anarchist, of the US Individualist Anarchists or Mutualist tradition. Other passions are social enterprise, monetary reform and housing. See full profile and contact form and at the following web-haunts:




















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