Israeli citizens were significantly likelier to earn medals at the Olympics than were those from the leading two medaling countries, the United States and China, and they were more likely to earn gold medals than Chinese people were, but not Americans, according to a JNS analysis.
JNS studied the top 50 medaling countries—in descending order of gold medals—and it used the most recent population estimates for countries from the CIA World Fact Book.
Israel, which has a population of 9.402 million, per the CIA, earned one gold medal and seven total medals. That means that one Israeli per 1.343 million medaled, and one Israeli per 9.402 million earned a gold medal.
The Jewish state significantly outperformed the average of the top 50 medaling countries, per the JNS analysis. On average, top 50 countries had populations of 75.2 million—some eight times Israel’s population—and earned 6.3 golds and 18.64 total medals.
That meant that, on average, those in the top 50 medaling countries had a one in 5.867 million chance of medaling and one in 17.43 million chance of earning gold. Israelis were 4.368 times likelier to medal than average, among top 50 countries, and were 1.854 times likelier to earn gold than the average.
The top two medaling countries were the United States, which earned 40 golds (one per 8.549 million) and 126 total medals (one per 2.714 million), and China, which earned 40 golds (one per 35.401 million) and 91 total medals (one per 15.561 million).
Israelis were 11.585 times likelier to medal than Chinese people and 3.765 times likelier to earn gold. Citizens of the Jewish state were 2.02 times likelier to medal than were Americans, but Americans were 1.01 times likelier to earn gold than were Israelis.
According to the JNS analysis, New Zealand was the country of the top 50 in which citizens were most likely to both medal (one in 258,060), with Israel coming in No. 21 on the list, and to earn gold (one in 516,121), with the Jewish state coming in No. 33 on the list.
