Golden Moments
Feb 12, 2010 | Updated: 12:23 p.m. ET Feb 12, 2010
Nine famous veterans share their favorite Olympic moments.
Winter Olympics Medal Counts, 1900 to Present, Per Capita
17 02 2010
# 1 Liechtenstein: 266.928 per 1 million people
# 2 Norway: 57.2611 per 1 million people
# 3 Finland: 27.1874 per 1 million people
# 4 Austria: 19.7923 per 1 million people
# 5 Switzerland: 13.7535 per 1 million people
# 6 Sweden: 11.9973 per 1 million people
# 7 Luxembourg: 4.2683 per 1 million people
# 8 Netherlands: 4.20552 per 1 million people
# 9 Canada: 2.92638 per 1 million people
# 10 Estonia: 2.25056 per 1 million people
Source: Nationmaster.com
Historian Matt Hayday has some thoughts about international coverage of the Olympics in a blog post called “The Empires Snide Back“. You can read about one economist’s predictions re medal counts here.
One prediction market is suggesting that Germany will gain the largest number of medals.
The Olympics always offer a great set of human stories, especially as presented by NBC. Which Olympian will draw upon his or her heart-tugging personal story for that extra bit of adrenaline? Who shall choke and who shall be exalted with sponsorships? Who will overcome the obstacles of cold, wind, and pain to post a world-beating time? When you consider all the variables—the intense competition, the milliseconds that can separate third from fourth place, or the wild card of something like skier Lindsey Vonn's injury status—it would seem strange to predict medal performance based largely on economic factors.
But there's a robust, and surprisingly accurate prediction business among economists for the summer Olympics. (I covered these sets of predictions in 2008 and 2004.) For the Winter Olympics, which feature fewer competitors and many fewer events, the number-crunchers typically put down their keyboards and spreadsheets. All except economist Daniel Johnson, who seems uniquely qualified to prognosticate on such matters. He was born in Canada, teaches at Colorado College, and (as his C.V. notes) is way into curling.
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