http://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/20 ... -the-world
That's quite interesting, because we might possibly be able to read all kinds of things into it.
In particular,
* that the US has been stable for a long time (global empire) but that there might be a slight downtrend since the 1980s.
* that China is up and coming.
* that Germany was once believed (1960s-1980s, remember the Deutsch Mark) to be up and coming but is definitely in a downtrend now.
* that the former USSR when taken combined still dominates everything.
I was actually expecting these numbers to act more as societal development index in the sense that the more athletes they send, the more they can waste on fun stuff like sports. Of course this is skewed by countries who make it a priority (East Germany) and by countries who do not (India?). Under that model, I computed how many athletes the US would have sent if the numbers where proportional to Denmark. This answer is 6,890 competitors. This could be indicative of the number of "effectively rich" people inside the country. E.g. why China sends less than the US or why the US with the highest Gini index isn't able to muster even more competitors.
Clearly this count is influenced by rules along the lines of each country sends their particular best (I think swimming does this which is why you sometimes see swimmers competing who would be crushed by the average competitive 10 year old swimmer) but I wonder to which degree that affects my simple "development" model. It could even destroy it. However insofar my model has some veracity, it could potential be used as a factor to predict very long (20-year scale) investing trends.
If it hasn't it still has some capacity to predict the probability of "impact factor" (as least as far as sports goes) for an individual in a given country.
PS: I think the choice of music at Sochi during the parade of nations was much better.
Olympics and global trends
Re: Olympics and global trends
It's an interesting thought. Though, there seems to be too many variables impacting this to indicate a country in decline. Maybe in 20-50 years when more of the world is part of this and on more equal footing it could.
It does seem like it could be a good indicator for a potential up and coming country. Breaking into this in a significant way would suggest an improving economy and better overall organizations. Though, of course, given the former USSR country's continued success it might draw this into question, but their success might still be the result of what's left of the most professional, well funded, and organized institutions in the world for Olympic athletic success.
Definitely would be worth a more thorough investigation for someone.
It does seem like it could be a good indicator for a potential up and coming country. Breaking into this in a significant way would suggest an improving economy and better overall organizations. Though, of course, given the former USSR country's continued success it might draw this into question, but their success might still be the result of what's left of the most professional, well funded, and organized institutions in the world for Olympic athletic success.
Definitely would be worth a more thorough investigation for someone.