This isn't automotive, but being an engineer, I have to say something.
There is a lot chatter and ink flying about how the U.S. is beating Canada in the winter Olympics medal count.
But not really.
Canada is outplaying us if you normalize the data. Who cares about total medal counts? Better measures are in residents/medal and GPD/medal.
Let's compare some countries using Wikipedia's demographic information and current medal count:
U.S.A: 310,000,000 people, GDP $14,400,000,000,000, 24 medals, 7.7E-8 Medals/Resident, 1.6E-12 Medals/$ GDP
Germany: 80,000,000 people, GDP $2,900,000,000,000, 18 medals, 2.3E-7 Medals/Resident, 6.2E-12 Medals/$ GDP
Norway: 4,800,000 people, GDP $257,000,000,000, 12 medals, 2.5E-6 Medals/Resident, 4.7E-11 Medals/$GDP
Canada: 34,000,000 people, GDP $1,300,000,000,000, 9 medals, 2.6E-7 Medals/Resident, 6.9E-12 Medals/$GDP
Slovenia: 2,050,000 people, GDP $54,600,000,000, 3 medals, 1.5E-6 Medals/Resident, 5.5E-11 Medals/$GDP
Per capita and per $ GPD, Canada is clearing beating the U.S. They are winning about 3.4x the number of medals per resident, and 4.3x the number of medals per $ of GDP.
But Norway is really cleaning up. It is winning medals at a rate 32x the U.S., per capita, and 30x the U.S. rate per $ of GDP.
