Problems of determining the sportsmanship of a country

Abstract

Nowadays, the most popular indicator, according to which the sportsmanship of a country is evaluated, is the number of medals won in the Olympic Games. In parallel with this index, an informal Olympic point counting system is used, when the first eight places are evaluated. It is obvious, that these are not the best indices, when trying to assess the sportsmanship of a country. For instance, is it appropriate to state, that a country, whose athlete, a swimmer, has won seven gold medals, is seven times more sportive than a country, whose football team has become the winner of the Olympic Games? In the article two techniques of assessing the sportsmanship of every country, when the amount of points, collected by them, is known, are suggested. In both cases points are counted per one million inhabitants. According to the first technique, countries are grouped by the total number of inhabitants, and the country of the greatest sportsmanship is assessed in each group. According to the second technique, the sportsmanship of all countries is assessed using the methods of mathematical statistics. The algorithm and techniques presented are illustrated using the results of the Beijing Olympics. Conclusions and suggestions are presented.

Be to, reikėtų įvertinti mažiausiai ketverių metų duomenis: prie turimų duomenų pridėti paskutinio sportinio sezono rezultatus, o prieš ketverius metus vykusių varžybų duomenis išimti.