Sochi 2014

Monaco, a real Winter Olympics hotspot

I love the Olympics. I especially love the Opening Ceremonies and watching the similarities and contrasts among the delegations. As an American, of course, I can't help feeling a burst of pride at seeing a sea of U.S. athletes walking into a stadium, ready to take on the world. But the smaller delegations can be equally powerful — sometimes just one or two athletes representing their entire nation on a global stage.

The Winter Olympics are particularly full of contrasts. Without getting into the economic profile of the countries that compete in the winter games (today's Washington Post has some really cool visualizations on that), I was curious to see which countries have the most Olympians.

First, the obvious question: Which countries have the largest delegations?

Total Olympians by Country

OK, so we expect some of the largest delegations to come from countries with large populations. So let's control for population:

Olympians per 1 Million People

Of course these numbers are a little deceptive. Because of the way I've done the math here, countries with populations of less than 1 million suddenly gain athletes.

And which countries have the highest density of olympians by area?

Olympians per 1,000 Square Kilometers

At only 2 square kilometers, Monaco once again gets the benefit of the math on this one.

Note: The image at the top is from a partial heat map of the Olympians-per-square-kilometer data that, sadly, Google Fusion Tables won't allow me to publish. Trust me, it was cool.

Data Sources: Athlete numbers from Sochi2014.com; country population and area data from CIA World Factbook. Both accessed February 6, 2013.

Chart Tool: Google Tables