Jamaica clinches Per Capita title ahead of Trinidad & Tobago and New Zealand
Which was the sportiest nation at the London 2012 Olympic Games?
We measure it by calculating how many inhabitants a given country needs to score 1 GSN Olympic point.
It doesn’t matter how large or small the country is but how efficient it is in winning points on the GSN scale, which takes into account the first 8 placements in each and every Olympic sports event.
The only other condition is that the country in question has at least 10 counts (placements in the first 8) in the Games, ensuring that the concept of “sportiest” involves more than a purely sporadic presence.
And the London Games winner is....Jamaica, needing only 4600 citizens to win one GSN point at the Olympics. The world’s fastest island, Jamaica won on the back of Bolt and Fraser-Pryce’s amazing sprinting performances plus sundry placements in a few other events like the Women’s 800m and Long Jump, giving them also the 18th place overall in the Olympic Games’ ranking.
Caribbean dominance is confirmed by Trinidad & Tobago’s second place in the Per Capita ranking: it needs 7705 T&T’s citizens to win a GSN point. T&T have been remarkable for scoring points in some other sports apart from Track Athletics: Track Cycling, Swimming and Keshorn Walcott’s outstanding gold-plated performance in the Men’s Javelin Throw.
New Zealand were only a few inhabitants short of second place, finishing third behind T&T with only 8038 citizens per point. The Pacific islands nation scored points in as many as 14 different sports, a truly outstanding performance which also earned them 6 gold medals, and which pays tribute to the excellent level the country has achieved in many sports, foremost among them Sailing and Rowing.
The Kiwis beat eternal rivals Australia by a handsome margin, while the Aussies just pipped (by 108 chaps) the first of the European nations, Lithuania. Basketball, Swimming (Ruta Meilutyte's gold in the 100m Breaststroke Women); Greco-Roman Wrestling and Boxing were the Lithuanian’s main sports but not the only ones as they scored points in 10 different sports.
Lithuania lead a pack of Euro countries from 6th to 10th place: the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Croatia and Slovenia, showing that the Per Capita Cup was not all about the Caribbean or Track Athletics. Just like the Olympics, it was about excellence and endeavour in many different and all gloriously Olympic sports.
