NZ high on medal table

New Zealand is among the most successful countries at the 2008 Olympics according to the calculations of medal success per population.

At the start of play yesterday, New Zealand had won nine medals, which equates to 2.15 medals per million people.

That puts the Kiwis into third place in the list of medal wins per population.

New Zealand is only pipped by Jamaica with its talented runners which produced seven medals from a population of 2.6 million.

Slovenia also punched far above its weight with five medals from a tiny population of two million.

New Zealand also does much better than most countries with a similar number of people like Singapore or Ireland.

The Irish have not won a medal in eight years.

Only Norway with its 4.7 million people has done nearly as well with 5 medals.

Surprisingly, Australia maintains its spot in the top of both the real medal table and the per capita list.

China may be dominating the gold medal table but when you split up their winnings among their 1.3 billion people, they end up down the bottom of the rankings.

Spare a thought though for India, the most underperforming Olympic nation in the world, which only won one gold medal in Beijing, which equates to 0.0008 medals per million Indians.

TOP TEN COUNTRIES PER CAPITA Country Medals Per million people Jamaica 7 2.69 Slovenia 5 2.50 New Zealand 9 2.15 Australia 36 1.73 Bahrain 1 1.70 Armenia 1.66 Belarus 13 1.35 Cuba 13 1.16 Denmark 6 1.10 Norway 5 1.06

TOP MEDAL WINNERS US 82 0.27 China 79 0.06 Russia 45 0.32 GB 37 0.61 Australia 36 1.73

- © Fairfax NZ News