Atlas

This map shows the world based on the results of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I chose it because my impatience for the London Games is growing! This map only depicts countries that won at least one medal; in addition, the countries are represented by circles that are sized according to the number of medals won by that country. For this reason, the United States is represented by the largest circle, China by the second largest circle, and so on. It is clear from the map that the United States, China, and Russia were the most successful countries, and that Europe (shown in green) won the most medals of any continent. South America, Africa, and Asia seem underrepresented in relation to their population; this is not surprising since these continents are still developing. This finding in addition to the large size of small (population-wise) countries such as Australia, Cuba, and Canada suggests that Olympic success is not related to population. It is interesting that currently or formerly Communist countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Germany, and Ukraine earned so many medals - I wonder what the implications of this are.