How do you measure success at the Olympics?
What qualifies as success?
An article in the Guardian sparked the question, who had the most successful Olympics? The USA, San Marino, and Bermuda all believe they had the best results. How can this be?
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well”
(Pierre de Coubertin, Founder of the International Olympic Committee)
What qualifies as Olympic success?
You can spin a narrative to justify any position using data; it all depends on your definition of success. You might define Olympic success as:
Total number of medals won (USA)
Number of gold medals won (also USA)
Total medals won per capita (San Marino)
Gold Medals won per capita (Bermuda)
Medals won per athlete
Medals won in new fields
Performance compared to previous Olympics
Training costs or investment spend per medal won
Ultimately, you need to define what success looks like upfront based on your goals and avoid manipulating data to paint a better picture.
What other lessons can we apply to business improvement from the Olympics?
Ashira Prossack wrote in Forbes, five key takeaways from the Olympics that you can apply to your business and career.
1. Know what you want to achieve and have a plan to reach your goals
2. Be in it for the long haul
3. Celebrate your accomplishments and manage your expectations
4. Setbacks happen, but don’t let them impact your success
5. Be your best at all times
Lessons for business leaders from the Winter Olympics
Rebecca Hind writes in Inc.com about five powerful lessons business leaders can learn from the 2018 PyeongCHang Olympics.
1. Focus on the team, not individual star players
2. Always be on the lookout for ways to boost employee efficiency
3. Focus on diversity and inclusion
4. Celebrate passion
5. Persevere when times get tough
“[Ad Esse] has empowered the teams to take ownership of their own performance in the pursuit of perfection.“
(Chris Bradley, Head of Commercial Development at East Hampshire District Council)
Update for Paris Olympics 2024
The Paris Olympics were excellent, particularly for meme-lovers, but who won the Olympics? Here's the leader medals table that we're used to seeing 👇
If success is measured by the total number of gold medals, the United States of America and People's Republic of China tie for top place.
If success is measured by the total number of medals won, the United States of America is the winner.
But what if we stopped looking through a gold-tinted lens?
Different measures can tell a different story of success...
Five athletes won the most medals with 5 in total: French swimmer Léon Marchand, American swimmer Torri Huske, Australian swimmer Mollie O'Callaghan, American swimmer Regan Smith and Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown.
Léon Marchand was the athlete who won the most gold medals at the Paris Olympics with 4 in total.
Grenada won the most medals per capita (population size), with 2 medals won and a population of 112,000 people. Population per medal is 56,000. (source)
Read about Duncan and Parece's 'probability-adjusted national rankings' model... also deemed 'The Goldilocks Model' here.
Or what if... we measured the Olympics by level of improvement based on previous performance?
Based on most improvement at Paris 2024, compared with Tokyo 2020, here are the leaderboards...
Improvement of total medals:
1. France +31
2. United States of America +13
3. Republic of Korea +12
4. Uzbekistan +8
5. Australia +7
6. Democratic People's Republic of Korea +6
7. Islamic Republic of Iran +5
Improvement of gold medals:
1. Republic of Korea +7
2. France +5
2. Uzbekistan +5
2. Netherlands +5
3. New Zealand +3
Instead of focusing on winning medals, what if we celebrated achieving personal bests as a team? Imagine the boundaries we could breakthrough.
Feeling inspired? If you would like help with putting effective measures in place to ensure your view of success, email us at hello@ad-esse.com.
The real winner of the 2024 Olympics. We think it's this guy 👇 Turkish Shooter, Yusuf Dikec
