The World’s New Look for the Olympics.
With the world’s gaze reverting to China for the opening ceremonies on Friday, the New York Times decided to remind the world of the previous century’s Olympic glory. Lee Byron, Amanda Cox and Matthew Ericson of the New York Times have compiled an interactive chart of former medal winners of the Olympic Games, dating back to 1896.
With a mere 11 countries entered into the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece it was the host country who emerged most victorious, with a colossal 10 gold medals, 17 silver and 19 bronze. We also bore witness to a range of lost and forgotten Olympic events, from Rope Climbing to Roman-Greco Wrestling, as well as road cycling and tennis.
The situation has most certainly changed in the 100 years that followed. In 2004, where Athens were once again the hosts of the Olympic Games, there were 74 countries who were awarded medals, from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago, and everywhere in between.
Unfortunately, Ireland’s golden age was the 1990s and no medals were awarded to us after the turn of the Millennium. If you don’t want to view the medal winners on the map geographically, you have the option to view them by rank also. This will inform you of the medal winners and the amount of medals they won in descending order. If you are curious as to what each country won their medals for, you simply click on them and it will list the medal winners, the medal that they won and what event it was for.
Personally, I believe this map is genius! From a journalist’s perspective, all the information they need about a country’s former medal winners, from the location of the Olympics of that particular year to the event for which the medal was won is only a mouse click away. This will save them hours of investigative journalism during the Games.
From the public’s point of view, it allows them to view their country’s progression or digression during the previous century, as well as that of neighbouring countries. All I can say to the journalists in question is great job!
