All the goals have been scored, finish lines crossed and champions crowned. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics are officially in the books. The gaze of the sporting world now shifts to Tokyo, host of the 2020 Games, but not without first fixating on the final medal count from Rio de Janeiro.
The official medal tally offers sports fans, statisticians, geopolitical strategists, fortune tellers and number crunchers alike a quadrennial opportunity to dive into a rich set of data to analyze the fate and fortune of nations based on their athletic achievements. Which countries exceeded expectations? How does economic growth affect a country’s gold medal count? Did Asian countries outperform South American ones? No matter how you slice it, there’s always something to be read into the number of gold, silver and bronze a country takes home.
The development community can also find plenty of food for thought in the medals race. The beauty of an international event such as the Olympics is that it convenes countries from all rungs of the development ladder, allowing states that don’t typically compete head-to-head in global commerce and trade to do so on the field, in the pool and on the track.
About the author
Naki B. Mendozamfbmendoza
Naki is a former reporter, he covered the intersection of business and international development. Prior to Devex he was a Latin America reporter for Energy Intelligence covering corporate investments and political risks in the region’s energy sector. His previous assignments abroad have posted him throughout Europe, South America, and Australia.