1. Medal Counts over Time
Line plot of medals received by top 10 countries over time
Hovering over the individual dots with the mouse will show exact number of medals each country won
The number of medals won by the top 10 countries over time is shown in this graph. USA is leading in medals for the majority of the time. Canada competes closely with the USA in medal count between 1980 to 2014. Russia had the highest number of medals from 1960 to 1998. Germany had the highest number of medals in 1976 and had the second highest number of medals between 1976 and 1992.
Bar Graph of total number of Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals received by top 10 countries
Russia is leading in gold medal while USA is leading in silver, with Finland having the highest number of bronze medals.
I recommend the line plot since it better shows which country performed better over time using the total count of medals won. The interactivity also allows the user to see exactly how many medals a country won in a given year.
2. Medal Counts Adjusted by Population, GDP
a) Bar graph of total number of gold medals received by top 10 countries
b) Bar graph of total number of gold medals received by top 10 countries adjusted by GDP
c) Total number of gold medals received by top 10 countries adjusted by population
Initially, Russia is leading in the number of gold medals received overall and when adjusted by GDP. However, when adjusted by population, Finland has the highest number of gold medals.
3. Host Country Advantage
Point graph for host country advantage
Hovering over the individual dots with the mouse will show exact number of medals each country won
USA, Russia, and Canada appear to perform significantly better when competing in their own country. France, Italy, Japan, Norway, and Switzerland all performed slightly better when competing as host country. Germany performed significantly worse while Yugoslavia performed slightly worse. It did not appear to make much of a difference to Australia.
4. Country Success by Sport for USA
Stacked plot for medals won by USA in winter sports
It appears that the USA is most successful in ice hocket. However, this is due to how medal data was coded- team events are counted as each athlete receiving a medal rather than one medal for the entire team. As a result, all events involving multiple members would be significantly higher. This is also the case for bob-sleigh in the early years, which involves 4 members. As a result of how team events are coded, events involving multiple members should result in higher medal received than individual events.
5. Most Successful Athletes
Dot plot of Most Successful Athletes by Gender
Hovering over the individual dots with the mouse will show exact number of medals each athlete won
The top two athletes ever are both male, with Bjorn Daehlie receiving 12 medals and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen receiving 13 medals.
7. Data table for USA Sports
The data table shows information on how USA performed in different winter Olympic sports.