N. Korea ranks second in GDP-weighted medals

By Choi Sung-jin

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday (KST), the 12th day of the Rio Olympics, the United States was top of the pack with 75 medals -- 26 gold, 23 silver and 26 bronze. Chasing the U.S. lead were Britain and China with 16 and 15 gold medals, respectively.

South Korea was 10th with six gold, three silver and five bronze medals. Also in the top 10 were Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Australia.

It is natural these countries with large populations and strong economies ― which mean big athletic talent pools and abundant training investment ― can perform well at the Games.

According to Internet website “Medals per capita” (https://medalspercapita.com), which measures medals in terms of gross domestic product, however, Grenada is top of the 206 countries taking part in the 2016 Summer Games.

Grenadian sprinter Kirani James won a silver medal in men’s 400m race, equating to $820 million in per medal GDP and marking the highest efficacy of a medal against GDP. Grenada, at the northern tip of South America, has a population of 110,000 and GDP of $820 million.

Grenada has taken part in the Olympics since 1984 but had no medals until the 2012 Games in London, where James won gold in the same event, making his government designate the day as a temporary holiday.

In second place on the website’s list was North Korea with a GDP of $22 billion and six medals, equating to $3.67 billion a medal. Third was Fiji, which won its first gold medal in Rio, followed by Mongolia and Jamaica. Sprint-strong Jamaica’s ranking will likely rise as track and field events enter the home stretch.

At the bottom was Turkey, which has won only one silver medal, recording $773 billion in GDP a medal. Host Brazil, which has won six medals, marked per-medal GDP of $412.7 billion.

South Korea, which has $1.12 trillion in GDP and 14 medals, was ranked 35th with per-medal GDP of $79.7 billion. The U.S. and China were at 56th and 52nd places with $218.7 billion and $162.1 billion, respectively.

In terms of people, Grenada also was first by earning a medal per 100,000 of population, followed by New Zealand with a medal per 570,000 people.

“As you scan the Olympic medal tally, one thing stands out: larger countries tend to win more medals,” Craig Nevill-Manning, who opened the website, said. Noting that Australia in 2008 was an exception by winning the fifth-largest number of medals with a population of 23 million, the New Zealander said: “It is a little unfair to ignore the relative wealth of countries, so the site counts medals relative to GDP.”