During Friday’s Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, they would show each country’s population and then the number of athletes from that country.  It was interesting to see which countries are the best at producing Winter Olympians.

Among the most efficient was Liechtenstein, with 7 athletes from a population of 35,000.  (1 in 5000).

For the sake of comparison:

  • Canada – 104 athletes out of 33.4 million. (1 in 321,000)
  • USA – 250 out of 308 million (1 in 1,232,000)
  • India – 3 out of 1.177 billion (1 in 392,000,000)

Liechtenstein is a tiny nation, just 62 square miles, wedged in between Switzerland and Austria.  Our small town has 70,000 people, and I’m sad to report that Livermore does not have 14 Winter Olympians.

So what has Liechtenstein feeling so Olympic?  Something in the water up in those Alps?  I think there a number of factors that allow Liechtenstein to produce more Olympic athletes per-capita than any other country.

  • Per-capita GDP is over $100,000, making Liechtenstein the richest country in the world on a per-capita basis.  Skiing equipment and bobsleds are expensive, and they can afford to buy them.
  • The geography of tiny Liechtenstein is covered with snowy mountainous, perfect for winter sports training.  There’s not much else to do.  In fact, they’ve never won a medal at the Summer Olympics.
  • Citizens pay low tax rates, so they have more disposable income to spend on winter sports recreation.
  • Liechtenstein has no military, so no able-bodied young men and women are joining the army instead of going skiing.

Liechtenstein has won 9 Winter Olympic medals in its history.   If we Americans were as good as the Liechtenstein-ians, we’d have won 79,000 medals, instead of the 216 we’ve got.  Basically they’re 365 times more efficient than us.  Gotta respect that.

Liechtenstein sounds like a nice place, I hope to have an opportunity to visit sometime.

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