Per capita medals table promoted
A Christchurch man wants the International Olympic Committee to run the per capita medals table alongside the officials medals board to better portray Olympic success.
Ray Hill, 77, has regularly kept his own per capita table at Olympic Games, dating back to Montreal in 1976.
The former businessman, who ran switchboard manufacturing companies in Christchurch and the Middle East, spent eight hours this week, poring over the figures after the Rio Olympics ended.
The Hill index has Grenada, with a population of 107, 000 on top after scoring a sole silver medal in Rio. New Zealand, who won 18 medals at Rio, are fourth behind Grenada, the Bahamas and Usain Bolt’s Jamaica. Based on Hill’s calculations, Australia are 15th, Great Britain 16th, the United States 38th, host nation Brazil 64th and China 74th.
Hill believes the IOC should have official per capita medals tables alongside the table listing each country’s medals total.
‘‘I only hope we can get some enthusiasm going,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a fairer system than just looking at the big countries and putting them on a pedestal.’’
He would like to see more recognition for ‘‘smaller countries, who are never going to be top of the [total medals] table.’’
Hill’s methodology is based around a points system where ‘‘three points are awarded for a gold medal, two for a silver and one for a bronze. Then I add up the points and divide the total by the country’s population.’’
Hill said he enjoyed the mathematical exercise and felt it was important to ‘‘keep the brain ticking over’’ after a stroke.
His figures tally with the tables on an international website, www.medalspercapita.com, which also had New Zealand ranked fourth with one medal for every 255,316 people.
Hill’s approach is slightly different because he awards points for each medal. Most per capita assessments are based around assessing the ratio of medals to population.