Read this first

Read this first

We have compiled a list of various things to bear when in mind when reading the tables and searching the Olympic and World Championships databases. For the explanation of the abbreviation of countries: see this file: http://sportstatsguru.com/cp/country-abbreviations/

The following entities are no longer in existence:

Commonwaelth of Independent States, Czechoslovakia, Dutch Antilles, East Germany, Malaya, South Vietnam, Serbia and Montenegro, Soviet Union , United Arab Republic, West Germany, Yugoslavia.

The following entities are part of another nation (or an amalgamation of soverreign states in one case), but have participated and earned medals in global competiton (i.e. World Championships or World Cup)

Basque Country, British Virgin Islands, England, Faroe Islands, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Iroquois Nation, Jersey, Macau, Martinique, New Caledonia, Northern Ireland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, US Virgin Islands, Wales, West Indies.

Medals

Russia is abbreviated RUS through all competitions, even though they were called OAR (Olympic Athlete from Russia) during the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. But, the latter change is just administrative and do not reflect any change in nationality.

Bohemia (BOH) is separated from both Czechoslovakia (TCH) and the Czech Republic (CZE). (Czechoslovakia did not exist until 1917 and Bohemia existed before that and the Czech Republic and Bohemia does not cover the same areas.)

It is also worth noting that in recent years the medalists have been altered due to re-testing of doping samples. However, the IOC does not always – so to speak – move up competitors as a result of this. This is either because a) the matter is not finally settled or b) the person supposed to be moved up to medal position have an earlier doping violation against them or c) the IOC is letting the matter rest with a vacant medal position. One might also mention the added administrative work to be done, for example concerning boxing in 2016. There a silver medalist lost his medal due to doping. No other person was moved up as this would mean two silver medalists and – perhaps – four bronze medalists! I, have however, disregarded this in some cases – see the notes column in the databases- where I believe the IOC is dragging their feet and where I believe that a person allowed to participate (i.e. not being disqualified in the competition in question) should also be allowed to receive a medal. I detest doping, but if you have served your time then you should be free to compete and earn medals as anybody else. All else is a double-standard.

Olympic sports and disciplines

Contrary to what the non-expert might believe what to count and not to count as official Olympic sports and disciplines is in no way straightforward. At least if we are talking about the early games before the Great War. I follow the Olympic historian David Walleschinsky as I find his reasoning plausible. He lists the following as indicators that a sport or discipline should not be counted as Olympic: a) Cash prices were awarded & b) Races were handicap races. However, there are other doubts as well. For example, nowadays a program is put together and adhered to. In this way, competitors know what sports and disciplines that will be present at a certain Olympic Games and they can enter if they qualify. This was in no way the case in the early games. The Paris games in 1900, for example, continued on for several months and exactly when a certain discipline was to be contested – or at all! – was not cast in stone. This caused problems for several of the participants that had travelled far. Sports were added as the games went along! Also, it is worth noting that Olympic committes as we know them did not exist for most countries back then. Nowadays you enter through the Olympic committe of your country. In the early games it is sometimes hard to know from which country a specific competitor actually came from. For example, the 1900 Marathon winner Michel Theató was first thought to be from France, but it has now been proven that he was actually from Luxembourg.

Finally, please note that the demonstration sports as well as arts are presented here out of historical interest. (The latter have their results in this file: Arts at the Olympic Games  )

Names

Note that all names that are originally written in the cyrillic language are translitterated in the Swedish fashion. For example, this means “tj” instead of “ch”, i.e. Ovetjkin instead of Ovechkin. However, sometimes the translitteration is unclear and the same person can be written with different spelling at different instances.

Also, because of various diacritical signs and such are several names written differently when they actually refer to the same person. Another thing that might be seen as a problem is when people change their surnames.

Teams

The names of the participants are only written in full when they are individual events or pair events.  Individual members in team competitions have been added in a number of cases. But, because of the work involved this is progressing slowly but steadily.

Up til now the following sports have all team members present in both the Olympic and the World Championship database: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Cross Country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track (following years are missing for the WC (stats haven’t been found): men 1982, 1985-97; women 1985-95 and 97-98), Ski Jumping, Speed Skating.

The following sports have some information added on team members: Archery (Olympics complete, WC missing), Athletics (everything complete except WC Cross Country Team competition), Canoeing (Olympics complete, WC missing), Cycling (Olympics complete, WC missing), Equestrianism (Olympics complete, WC missing), Fencing (Olympics complete, WC missing),  Gymnastics (Olympics complete, WC missing), Gymnastics Rhythmic (Olympics complete, WC missing), Ice Hockey (Olympics complete, WC missing)., Baseball (Olympics complete, WC missing), Basketball (Olympics complete, WC missing), Field Hockey (Olympics complete, WC missing, Swimming (Olympics complete, WC missing). All sports not mentioned here have team members missing.

Results

Where applicable is the result of the winner written in the respective results column. In the team sports the overall tournament results are shown. For badminton, tennis, beachvolleyball and table tennis is the result of the final written in the silver medalist result column. This is also a work in progress and the overall aim is to include all results of all medalists in the respective result column. However, for the world championships – especially earlier editions – is this a Herculian task as many results are not known. But, for the Olympics this might be achieved in due course, but, as can be understood, it is a massive undertaking.