With the 2020 Olympics finally behind us, some are wondering as to the fairness of the medal table. After all, the USA is almost always top of the heap. But what if that were recalculated a little, perhaps accounting for GDP per capita?
随着 2020 年奥运会终于过去，一些人对奖牌榜的公平性产生了疑问。毕竟，美国几乎总是名列前茅。但如果稍微重新计算一下，也许考虑到人均国内生产总值呢？
Nanjing’s very own Guo Li was one of the Chinese to bring home a medal from Tokyo, as expected. Her and her team picked up a silver in synchronised swimming. That’s two silver Olympic medals now for 28-year-old Guo.
不出所料，南京队的郭力是从东京带回奖牌的中国选手之一。她和她的团队在花样游泳比赛中获得银牌。对于 28 岁的郭来说，这已经是两枚奥运会银牌了。
It helped, but not enough, to beat out the USA to the top spot. But it wasn’t that much of a surprise. After all, it, China and Russia (represented in Tokyo as ROC) have pretty much dominated the upper echelons of the league table for more years than anyone can remember.
它帮助击败美国登上榜首，但还不够。但这并不令人意外。毕竟，中国和俄罗斯（在东京以 ROC 为代表）在排行榜上占据主导地位的时间比任何人都记得的要长。
One of the pleasant exceptions to the USA in pole position was of course 2008, when China was top, with its athletes on home turf in Beijing. The host usually fares pretty well.
当然，美国取得杆位的令人愉快的例外之一是 2008 年，当时中国队在北京的主场夺得冠军。主人通常表现得很好。
Nevertheless, the fact remains, wealthy counties do better at the Olympics. In this recent Olympic outing, the top ten by medal count went USA, China, ROC, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and France.
尽管如此，事实仍然是，富裕国家在奥运会上表现更好。在最近的奥运会上，奖牌数排名前十的分别是美国、中国、中华民国、英国、日本、澳大利亚、意大利、德国、荷兰和法国。
Obviously, these are the counties with better sports infrastructures, greater government investment, the best paid coaches, the coolest marketing, etc.
显然，这些县拥有更好的体育基础设施、更多的政府投资、薪水最高的教练、最酷的营销等等。
It’s not, as we say, pardon the pun, a particularly level playing field.
正如我们所说，这并不是一个特别公平的竞争环境。
Time for a rethink.
是时候重新思考一下了。
And actually, if recalculated by GDP per capita, the medal table looks very different. Like really, really, really different.
事实上，如果按照人均GDP重新计算，奖牌榜看起来就大不一样了。就像真的、真的、真的不一样。
For by GDP per capita, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medal table now goes China, ROC, Kenya, Ukraine, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Brazil, Iran and Uzbekistan.
按人均国内生产总值计算，2020年东京奥运会奖牌榜目前依次为中国、中华民国、肯尼亚、乌克兰、乌干达、埃塞俄比亚、印度、巴西、伊朗和乌兹别克斯坦。
And in such a scenario, the USA comes in at number 15, revealed the BBC on 10 August.
BBC 8 月 10 日透露，在这种情况下，美国排名第 15。
Interestingly, the league tables are not only skewed in favour of the rich. If you are only good at team sports, you don’t do well at the Olympics. But if your sport requires little infrastructure, your chances are better.
有趣的是，排行榜不仅偏向于富人。如果你只擅长团队运动，你在奥运会上就不会取得好成绩。但如果您的运动不需要太多基础设施，那么您的机会就更大。
Take India and Ethiopia as examples. The former is fantastic at cricket, as everyone knows. But that’s not even an Olympic discipline. Hockey is, however, and Indians are also good at that. But there is only a maximum of two Olympic medals to be won in hockey.
以印度和埃塞俄比亚为例。众所周知，前者在板球方面表现出色。但这甚至不是奥林匹克竞赛项目。然而，曲棍球是，而且印度人也擅长曲棍球。但曲棍球运动最多只能赢得两枚奥运会奖牌。
For the latter, Ethiopians have won 55 Olympic medals, and every last one has been in long-distance running events. The reason? The low-pressure, high-altitude mountains of Ethiopia, where athletes train and with little in the way of support services.
对于后者，埃塞俄比亚人已经赢得了 55 枚奥运会奖牌，而且每一枚奖牌都是在长跑项目上获得的。原因是什么？埃塞俄比亚的低气压、高海拔山区是运动员训练的地方，但几乎没有支持服务。
That’ll toughen you up.
这会让你坚强起来。
