Hosts Russia win the Sochi Winter Olympics

Host nation Russia have won the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics with a relatively narrow margin (60 points, or 0.9%) over Canada, the winners four years ago in Vancouver.

Russia won the Men’s ranking by a handsome margin over Canada and Norway, and trailed surprisingly in the Ladies (6^th), where victory went to the USA.

 

It had been a much tighter affair in Vancouver, with the hosts (Canada) winning again, but only by 8 points over the USA, third placed in Sochi this year. While Norway claim fourth place again as in Vancouver, it is Germany who bow out of the top four to make room for Russia, which are also the top-ten country with the greatest improvement vs Vancouver 2010, when they had finished 5^th.

 

In Sochi the fifth place goes to Sweden, doing one better than in Vancouver, and interestingly the nation with the better differential, in ranking terms, between the medals table and the GSN ranking.

While the top four countries in the medals table (Russia, Norway, Canada, USA, in order) are also the same – if with a slightly different order – of the GSN ranking, Sweden’s 5^th place proves the Scandinavians have much more strength in depth than their meagre 14^th position in the medals ranking shows.

They scored points in 7 different sports and, though not winning any single one, they arrived  second in three (Cross Country Skiing, Curling and Ice hockey).

 

In a nutshell, this is the difference between GSN performance analysis and medals tables: the premium on countries’ versatility and a unique recognition of their strength across sports.

Another northern country, Finland, also does much better in the GSN ranking (10^th, vs 18^th in the medals), while the Netherlands do the opposite: they have grabbed an astonishing 23 medals – 8 golds – in Speedskating (plus a lone medal in Short Track), earning themselves a 5^th place in the medals table, but their virtual non-existence outside the skating rink (save for a 4^th place in the Women’s bobsleigh…) means they finish only 11^th in the GSN ranking.

 

Different sports for different folks: the USA have been rather below par in Sochi, and this is confirmed by the fact that they have won outright only one sport (Snowboarding) while Russia (Bobsleigh, Figure Skating and Skeleton), Canada and Norway have each won three, with Russia earning a top-three spot in 5 others (Cross Country Skiing, Luge, Short Track, Snowboarding and Speedskating) to confirm their winning form.

 

Before honouring the individual sports winners, a brief mention for..

-  the worse performance compared to Vancouver 2010 (South Korea, from 10^th to 17^th)

-  the three countries who scored points in Sochi and not in Vancouver: Spain (27^th), New Zealand (28^th) and Belgium (29^th)

-  and for a new sport winner, China (Short Track).

 

And the winners are…. (Vancouver 2010 winner in parenthesis)