In a recent blog article ( https://www.boloji.com/blog/2830/paris-olympics ), I talked about the medals tally in the recently concluded Olympic Games and made a critical review of the ranking method followed by the International Olympic Committee. This article will focus on the overall performances of the participating countries with a focus on geographical and ethnic aspects.

Overall, 206 countries (represented by the respective National Olympic Committees) participated in the Games. Out of these, ninety-two countries were successful in securing at least one medal. The worldwide distribution of medal winners is shown in the figures below.

Fig. 1. Medal Winners, Eastern Hemisphere.

Fig. 2. Medal Winners, Western Hemisphere.

The total number of medals won by the participating countries was 1,044. The table below contains the break-up of gold, silver, and bronze medals. The table also contains the share of medals secured by the top twenty performing countries.  The countries are the USA, China, Japan, Australia, France, Netherlands, Great Britain, Korea, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, Uzbekistan, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Kenya, and Brazil.

Table 1. Medals of all and the top 20 countries.

We see that less than ten percent of the participating countries grab nearly 80 percent of all gold medals and two-thirds of the total number of medals. The total population of these twenty countries is 2.83 billion. This works out to be about 35 percent of the world's population of 8.1 billion.

Where are these twenty countries located geographically?  The answer is in the map shown below. The twenty countries are depicted in red and blue shades

Fig. 3. Top twenty countries (color shaded).

We see that only two of the top twenty, that is Kenya and Brazil lie in the tropical regions. Australia lies partly in the tropical region. However, most of the population lives in cities that are located south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Thus, eighteen of the twenty countries are located in the Mediterranean region, that is to the north of the Tropic of Cancer and to the south of the  Tropic of Capricorn.

The domination of cold countries in the field of sports is nothing new. It is not limited to just the Olympic Games either.  In the ongoing US Open Tennis tournament, we see that five Europeans, two Americans, and one Australian player feature in the Men’s quarter-finals line-up.

Favorable climatic conditions and economic affluence are the main reasons for these countries to excel in games and sports. We can say that such countries are the privileged ones.

What about the less privileged countries? India, for example, has secured just six medals. From Fig. 1 we can gather that a large number of countries, actually more than fifty percent of the participating countries,  have failed to secure even a single medal. They include almost the whole of Central Africa. This situation can be expected to remain the same for many more decades to come.  I will end this article with a question to ponder. Can anything be done to lift the morale of the large number of underprivileged countries?