Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, Can anyone catch Grenada?

As we hop, skip and jump our way to the end of the XXX Olympiad, the usual suspects are once again heading the medal table. The money, population and might of China and the US far outdo the efforts of most of the other nations combined. Great Britain is doing fantastically well in third place, outdoing every Team GB Olympic attempt since 1908 – to put that into perspective the last time we did this well, the Queen’s dad, George VI was 4.

But just as interesting as the conventional medals table is one that reveals the number of medals per capita for each of the countries competing.  Top of the table is the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada.  With a population of just 110,000, roughly equivalent to that of Exeter and an area of just 133 square miles, Kirani James took Gold in the Mens 400m, meaning that Grenada claims the highest medals per capita count, averaging out as 9.2 medals per million.

Grenada is followed by Jamaica who, following a clean sweep in the sprints last night have 3 Golds to show for a population of just under 3 million bringing their average in at 1.03 medals per million. An impressive feat but nowhere near the spectacular achievement of their tiny island neighbours.

Britain places 7^th in this alternative list, which whilst a long way off their actual standing in the tables is still a result not to be grumbled at. More impressively however, the four counties comprising Yorkshire have produced competitors that have taken four Olympic Golds, including Nicola Adams, Alistair Brownlee, Ed Clancy and of course Jessica Ennis. This means that Yorkshire itself has achieved 0.78 Gold medals per million, placing 4^th in the world overall. That’ll do.

In this alternative list however the countries with the larger populations do not do very well; the USA comes out 22^th and China 40^th. Worse still is poor India which, with a population of more than 1billion has not emerged from the games so far with gold.

So long gone are the decades of games won by first the imperial powers, then either the US or Russia throughout the Cold War.  Now, as the competition heats up in its second week, the real rivalry looks set to be played out on the white, sandy beaches of St. George and on the rain-soaked, pub-bordered, stone-walled village greens of the Dales.