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Olympic Medal Prediction Model
bettiwettiwoo writes "Slate reports that PricewaterhouseCooper claims to have devised a model predicting the final medal tally for nations competing in the Olympic Games. GDP is of particular importance in bringing home the bacon, closely followed by population size and and past performance. Other factors can also affect the outcome: hosting the games usually gives a medal boost. With the possible exception of China, the titan nations of the games (US, Russia, China and Germany) are predicted to see a successive drop in their total medal tally in the future (and compared to the Sydney Games, the future starts now). So if you were wondering why the Iraqi soccer team seems on its way to the quarter finals, why Greece takes gold in synchronized diving, or why Michael Phelps has to eat Ian Thorpe's bubbles, don't worry: it's only evolution, baby, and it's all perfectly predictable!"
The Olympics are about skill, and how many medals a country gets would depend on how skilled the athletes are.
Skill != Evolution
What's with all the links to half-naked men? Dammit, Slashdot has gone all metrosexual these days.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
..it still doesn't tell us who to bet on in the Womens beach volleyball. Damn now I'm going to have to watch every match to find out
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I imagine that's due at least in part to the fact that the host country traditionally makes an attempt to field a team in every event, or at least as many as possible.
1. Compete in more events
2. ???
3. Medal profit!
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
It's all a cunning plan by Australia to breed the perfect swimmer. It's working well too. Nobody seems to have noticed the size 27 feet. We're going to try to get away with hands the size of hub caps at the next olympics.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
"You're forgetting what the Olympics are all about: giving out medals of beautiful gold, so-so silver and shameful bronze."
Sorry, that made me think of a Top Secret! line:
Hillary Flammond: Who do you favor in the Virginia Slims tournament?
Blindman: In women's tennis, I always root against the heterosexual.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
Nothing like sharks, blue-ringed octopus, crocodiles and jellyfish to give aussies incentives to swim faster :-)
think part of the reason is, they invest allot in sports psychology, and given that 90% of Aussies live on or very near the sea, water is in their blood. They just like to swim!!!
I think the sharks make good training partners as well. For the swimmers that don't make the cut, not only is the water in their blood, their blood is in the water. Australia is starting to sound a lot like Soviet Russia.
Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
Yes, true but its also about inclination towards certain sports. For example, the vast majority of Aussies live near the sea and so are inclined towards water sports, particularly swimmimg. Thats why they own every one (per population) in the pool!!
Zero?
We're talking about last year's Olympics, right?
The people of Atlantis beg to differ!
There was a series of articles in ESPN magazine a few months ago talking about the development of sports internationally, and one of the pieces focused on India and their relative lack of advancement or overall skill in most olympic or professional team sports, other than cricket. It talked about various factors, from lack of infrastructure to lack of interest or social norms that emphasized non-physical competition or activities, none of which I'm really qualified to speak on. I was just wondering if there is anyone here from India or familiar with it that could say if they think this idea true or not, that India is not only "behind" atheletically but will likely stay that way despite GDP growth.