INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

three editions of the Olympic Games are taken into considerations:
Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).
Per edition a global Olympic Index will be calculated for each of
the six countries. Through this global index value, it’s possible to
analyze how the different countries have moved through the three
editions. In addition to the global index an index is composed for each
sport. This makes possible to compare performances in the different
sports during the last three editions.
With regard to this, an important remark has to be made. Not in all
sports the Olympic Games are the most important sports event. In
tennis for example, Grand Slams are more important for the players
than the Olympic Games. This is also true in other strongly
commercialized sports like football and cycling. In these sports, the
best athletes do not always compete at the Olympic Games.
The concept of the Olympic Index is based on existing sport
indices from three countries, namely:
- the Elite Sport Index and Olympic Index from the Netherlands
(NOC*NSF);
- the World Sporting Index from the United Kingdom (UKSport);
- the National Sporting Index from Canada (Sport Canada).
2. Global index value
2.1. Research method
For the calculation of the global index value, top 8 places at the
last three Olympic Games are taken into consideration. Points are
attributed to the top 8 places by two systems:
1. first 8 places: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points;
2. winner-final-semi final-quarter final: 10-8-5,5-2,5 points.
The assigned points are weighted according to the size of the sport
(defined by the number of national federations affiliated with the
international umbrella federation). After that the index values for the
different sports are added to obtain the global index value for this
country.
To compare the performances of the six different countries, the
results will be expressed in percentages of the total number of points
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