BMAT 2009 · Question 20 · Inference
SaveIn the Beijing Olympics, in 2008, China claimed to have come out top of the medal rankings on the basis that it won the most gold medals. The USA contested this on the grounds that it won the most medals, gold, silver and bronze counting one each. But arguably neither of the above methods of counting gives an accurate picture of relative achievement. The fairest system would be weighting the medals, as follows, and/or comparing the medals won against population or national wealth.
Great Britain's population is 62 million, the population of the US is 306 million, and the population of the Russian Federation is 142 million. If these countries had been added to Fig 4, which of the following would be correct: 1 Great Britain rank below Slovenia but above the USA. 2 The Russian Federation won the equivalent of less than 1 bronze medal for every million of its population.