China’s medal haul at the Asian Games has unsettled South Korea, which now appears increasingly unlikely to catch up with China, while also trailing behind Japan.
As a result, South Korea is considering shifting its ranking criteria from total medals to per capita performance.
Once the metric changes, rankings shift dramatically:
1. Bahrain (11.67 medals per 100,000 people, with a high proportion of naturalized athletes)
2. Kazakhstan
3. South Korea (1.98 medals per 100,000 people, surpassing Japan’s 1.58 and equalling nearly 10 times China’s 0.2)
4. Japan
5. Uzbekistan
6. Thailand
7. Iran
8. China (0.2 medals per 100,000 people)
9. India
...
There is always a metric that can elevate a nation’s standing—clever, indeed!
Under this logic, a microstate winning a single gold medal could be deemed superior to China’s dominance across 100 events.
Yet this approach has drawn criticism: a single medal for a small nation is undoubtedly more striking than a large country securing multiple golds.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1877910974390284/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.