Roxane Coche, C.A. Tuggle

Abstract: Winning Olympic medals has become a matter of national prestige. Although the International Olympic Committee refuses to recognize country rankings by medals, the medal table is constantly updated during the competition and both the media and the public follow its evolution with keen interest. However, the medal table is not standardized. This prompted Tuggle to introduce a new way to calculate a country’s Olympic medal success. Tuggle called for more research, encouraging the creation of a more sophisticated system. This paper is a response to his call, as the authors use Poisson regression to determine whether variables such as the population of a country or the size of its Olympic contingent affect that country’s Olympic success. Findings indicate that HDI, size of contingent and ANOC branch are have a uniformly positive effect on medal success, while population and proportion of female athletes affect the results differently in summer and winter competitions.

Citation: Coche, R., & Tuggle, C. A. (2017). Developing more sophisticated methods for measuring Olympic medal success. International Journal of Sport Management, 18(3), 313-329.

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