The real winner at the Olympics is ... Armenia

BEIJING | Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:11am EDT
(Reuters) - With a population of 1.3 billion some might argue that China should be leading the medal tally at the Olympics but the real winner is ... Armenia.

The Los Angeles Times has compiled a tongue-in-cheek list of winning nations based on medals per capita and six days into the August 8-24 Games the former Soviet republic of Armenia, with

population of nearly 3 million, leads with three bronze medals.

Georgia, with 4.6 million people, is in second place with two gold medals -- in men's judo and Greco-Roman wrestling -- and one bronze, while at home the nation is at loggerheads with Russia over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

Australia, with a population of 20.5 million, is standing firmly in third place with 16 medals, including five gold medals, three of them won by rising star of the pool Stephanie Rice.

Switzerland, with 7.6 million people, won a cluster of cycling medals to ride into fourth place, with Roger Federer still in the hunt for the men's tennis title.

The alternative medal table by the Los Angeles Times had the Bahamas, with a population of 300,000, winning the medal count at both the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Athens Games in 2004.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/14/us-olympics-armenia-idUSSP34071420080814