London 2012 Medal Tally by Use of Capital Punishment
| government, sport
At the end of the Olympic Games, people like to play around with medal tallies ordered or weighted in a variety of (dis)interesting ways. Here’s mine:
| Country has death penalty | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| No | 192 | 211 | 254 |
| Yes | 110 | 93 | 102 |
The part of the world that does not legally kill its citizens is victorious! So, is removing an archaic form of justice the secret to Olympic success? It’s not quite that simple. The top two nations in the general tally are also in this illustrious list:
| Country with DP | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| United States | 46 | 29 | 29 |
| China | 38 | 27 | 22 |
| Japan | 7 | 14 | 17 |
| Cuba | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Iran | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| North Korea | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Ethiopia | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Belarus | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Uganda | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| India | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Thailand | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Egypt | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Botswana | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Qatar | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Singapore | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Afghanistan | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Bahrain | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kuwait | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 110 | 93 | 102 |
The USA and China give the off-with-their-heads mob it a great start, but they can’t compete with the sheer number of little-nations-that-could in this enlightened tally:
| Country without DP | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Great Britain | 29 | 17 | 19 |
| Russian Federation | 24 | 25 | 33 |
| South Korea | 13 | 8 | 7 |
| Germany | 11 | 19 | 14 |
| France | 11 | 11 | 12 |
| Italy | 8 | 9 | 11 |
| Hungary | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| Australia | 7 | 16 | 12 |
| Kazakhstan | 7 | 1 | 5 |
| Netherlands | 6 | 6 | 8 |
| Ukraine | 6 | 5 | 9 |
| New Zealand | 6 | 3 | 5 |
| Jamaica | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Czech Republic | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Spain | 3 | 10 | 4 |
| Brazil | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| South Africa | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Croatia | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Romania | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Kenya | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Denmark | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Azerbaijan | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Poland | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Turkey | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Lithuania | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Norway | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Canada | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| Sweden | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Colombia | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Georgia | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Mexico | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Ireland | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Argentina | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Serbia | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Slovenia | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Dominican Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Uzbekistan | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Latvia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Algeria | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bahamas | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Grenada | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Venezuela | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mongolia | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Armenia | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Finland | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Bulgaria | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Chinese Taipei | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Estonia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Puerto Rico | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Gabon | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Guatemala | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Montenegro | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Portugal | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Moldova | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Morocco | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tajikistan | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 192 | 211 | 254 |
The source for the tally is ScraperWiki, and the source for the capital punishment stats is Wikipedia (Aug 2012). I’ve given some countries the benefit of the doubt by including those who have “abolished in practice” on the side of no death penalty.
It’s been fun! See you again in Sochi 2014. I love the ski jump.