Data visualization: Lab 3
In the last lab session, we saw some visualizations in D3. Today we will place these visualizations in a web page and will summarize our conclusions. We will re-use the dataset from last time. This dataset contains information on all the countries participating in the Olympic games in 2012. The data was obtained from The Guardian data blog website. The question we are asking is: Which country performed the best?
Official ranking
The official ranking system awards three points for a gold medal, two for a silver and one for a bronze. Points are added together for each country and the resulting total is used to rank each country. As opposed to a medal tally, this system weights gold medals higher.
Medal tally
The top 5 performers based on the total medal count are exactly the same as the ones based on the official rankings. This suggests that for these countries the weights in the official rankings do not matter as much and their high ranks in that system are largely due to a high tally of medals. The next 5 countries do switch places but largely due to the closeness of their medal tally and differences in the number of gold.
Gold medal tally
If the absolute number of gold medals is considered, significant changes occur in the top 10. While USA and China hold their respective positions, Russia and UK swap places. South Korea gets bumped up to the fifth position and Hungary knocks out Australia from the top 10.
In summary, the answer to the above question depends on what one is asking. The rankings based on the three measures listed above are summarized below. But the International Olympic Committee does not claim that its system is the 'best' by any means!
| Rank | Official ranking | Medal tally | Gold medal tally |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USA | USA | USA |
| 2 | China | China | China |
| 3 | Russia | Russia | UK |
| 4 | UK | UK | Russia |
| 5 | Germany | Germany | South Korea |
| 6 | France | Japan | France |
| 7 | Japan | Australia | Germany |
| 8 | Australia | France | Hungary |
| 9 | South Korea | Italy | Italy |
| 10 | Italy | South Korea | Japan |
I believe each country will highlight what suits it best. One country will say, 'Gold medals.' The other country will say, 'The total tally counts.' We take no position on that.
Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee.