As the Summer of Sport continues, Data and Business Consultant at Dufrain, Michael Corris turns his attention to the Olympic games and how the numbers can uncover fascinating insights. Continue reading as Michael shares his perspective on the data behind the champions.
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are now truly underway. On Friday 26th July, we saw the opening ceremony for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in the City of Lights.
Eighty-five boats carrying 6,800 athletes along the Seine towards a sparkling Eiffel Tower made Olympic history, as this was the first time the opening ceremony took place outside of a traditional stadium setting, allowing as many people as possible in the city to watch and celebrate.
And what is the Olympic Games, if not a treasure trove of statistics and data with which we can make wild assumptions and predictions (yes, it is also an elite sporting stage that sees some of the world’s finest athletes compete against one another.) As a market-leading pure play data consultancy, we’re, of course, interested in the numbers and how they can help us uncover hidden insights.
We’ve taken some data covering all the Olympic athletes who competed between 1896 and 2016 (thank you, Kaggle) and had a little play to see if we can determine what it takes to become an Olympic champion. Let’s take a look at what we discovered.
Expectations for Olympic success
First of all, let’s take a quick look at this year’s games. This will be France’s sixth time hosting the Olympic games and the third time in its capital, Paris. Each venue showcases what France has to offer, with beach volleyball taking place in front of the Eiffel Tower and equestrian events at the Palace of Versailles (very boujee).
Over 2,000 athletes from around 200 teams are competing this year, with 327 of those representing Team GB. Which of them is the best hope of a medal? I hear you scream. We certainly have some strong contenders.
Dina Asher-Smith is running the 100m, 200m and 4×100 metres relay and hopes to become GB’s first individual sprint champion since Linford Christie in 1992 (the games that got me hooked at the gentle age of six).
Suffering an awful skateboarding accident Aged 11 in 2020, that almost claimed her life, Sky Brown is more determined than ever to win Gold. At just 13, she went on to become Team GB’s youngest-ever Summer Olympic medallist with Bronze in Tokyo.
Since then, she’s won two X Games and a world title, making her Britain’s first-ever skateboarding world champion. A tore knee ligament earlier this year threatened her participation at the Olympics, but she is back, strong and ready to take Gold.
Following three consecutive silver medals at world events, Keely Hodgkinson will compete in the women’s 800m race, hoping to go one better during the second week of competition at the Stade de France.
So, now, let’s use the historical data we have to help us uncover some valuable insights into what it takes to become an Olympic champion.
Diving into Olympic data
Now, as mentioned, let’s have some fun with the data from the Olympic Summer Games from 1896 to 2016. Taking a data-driven approach, we reveal some interesting patterns and insights into what it takes to achieve Olympic glory:
- The USA has the highest medal count, with 5,002. This shows that a third, or 33.2%, of all USA team athletes win a medal (the highest percentage amongst all current competing teams.)
- The average male height and weight of Gold medal winners are 6ft and 80kg; for women, they are 5 ft 6 in and 64kg (that counts me out, probably.)
- How about the average age of Gold medal winners? It’s 24 years old for women and 26 years old for men (okay, that definitely counts me out.)
- Interestingly, athletics is the sport that has handed out the most medals, with 3,969 individual winners. The sports with the least? Alpinism (4), roque (3), jeu de paume (3), basque pelota (2) and aeronautics (1).
- Did you know that tug of war used to be an Olympic discipline? It was featured in the Olympic Games between 1900 and 1920, and the UK dominated in 1908, winning all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals on offer.
Which event are you looking forward to the most? Breakdancing or breaking is a new event this year, and sport climbing, one of my favourites, returns after being introduced in Tokyo 2020.
It’s fascinating to see how data and sports are intrinsically linked. If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, you may also be interested in our Formula 1 blog, where we ask, ‘Is Formula 1 the world’s most data-driven sport?’