Summer Olympics 2004

Cambridge 2000 memos

August 2004

Most Olympic medal counts focus on nations, it is far more interesting to look at the bigger picture. The final medal count for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics games by continent:

rank	continent	gold	silver	bronze	medals	points
1	Europe	137	150	178	465	889
2	Asia-Pacific (including Middle East)	96	78	77	251	521
3	North America (including Carribean)	51	56	48	155	313
4	Africa	9	13	13	35	66
5	South America	8	4	11	23	43
	total	301	301	327	929	1832

and by trading bloc:

rank	trading bloc	gold	silver	bronze	medals	points
1	others	181	153	194	528	1043
2	EU	82	100	100	282	546
3	NAFTA	38	48	33	119	243
	total	301	301	327	929	1832

(The tables are sorted by points, where points are calculated by giving 3 for gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze.)

Contrary to the expectations of many, the games turned out to be well hosted by Greece, perhaps matching Sydney in 2000 and way ahead of Atlanta in 1996. The one unfortunate incident which undid much of the good will was the vocal disruption by many Greeks in the audience of the men's 200 meter track final, because the favoured Greek athlete had dropped out after failing to turn up for a drug test (make your own conclusions).

There were too many athletic highlights to list them all here.

Cambridge 2000 memos