So the 2008 Olympic Games are drawing to a close and the British are celebrating a record haul of medals – as I write this we have a pretty amazing total of 39, including 17 gold medals. What has been striking is where the successes have been achieved, in the sailing and, particularly, in the cycling where there were ten gold medals on offer of which we won seven.
Looking at the medals table you can see just how great the achievement really is – third for a county of our size is fantastic. Putting it into perspective I took the top 10 and worked out each countries relative position based on the medals won per head of population. On this basis it puts us second, just behind our current sporting rivals Australia. That last fact should give some comfort to this lot of whinging Aussies!
| Ranking | Country | Medals | Population | Actual Ranking |
| 1 | Australia | 37 | 21,394,309 | 5 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 39 | 60,587,300 | 3 |
| 3 | South Korea | 24 | 48,224,000 | 7 |
| 4 | Ukraine | 18 | 46,059,306 | 10 |
| 5 | Germany | 29 | 82,191,000 | 6 |
| 6 | Italy | 21 | 59,619,290 | 9 |
| 7 | Russia | 46 | 141,888,900 | 4 |
| 8 | USA | 83 | 304,917,000 | 2 |
| 9 | Japan | 23 | 127,690,000 | 8 |
| 10 | China | 81 | 1,325,637,000 | 1 |