Mesauring sports performance by country according to the natural advantages/desadvantages of competing nations

Abstract

Sports results have mattered to societies and their rulers, given their impact on the economy, the country's image and political implications. Therefore, it has also been in their interest to find alternative methods to refine their measurement (such as those that weight according to the country’s population and quality of life). This paper introduces a methodological proposal for measuring sports results based on Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 (held in 2021). To this end, two indexes were created, each with two different versions: unstandardised and standardised. The first included Olympic diplomas in the scoring system; the second counted the number of medal-winning athletes; finally, the third and fourth indexes weighed the previous results on the basis of population and per capita income. Our proposal will make it possible to highlight the sporting performances of countries whose income and population do not allow them to stand out in the traditional rankings. By making their sporting results visible, their governments will be encouraged to make further investments in the sport sector, with consequent socio-economic benefits for the population as a whole.