Medals Per Capita blip: Netherlands Antilles

Medals Per Capita today makes the glaring confession of having overlooked the Netherlands Antilles, a blunder you’d presume unthinkable.

After all, the Netherlands Antilles should be a veritable Medals Per Capita daydream, sitting down there in the Caribbean, part of the unfairly titled Lesser Antilles — and just who said they’re lesser?! — and with a tactically proficient population of only 225,369.

But no, Medals Per Capita headquarters had become so obsessed with The Defending Champion Bahamas that it felt ransacked Wednesday when Netherlands Antilles up and made MPC history.

It became the first known nation to reach No. 1 and fall completely off the board in the same day.

While people with, you know, a life, watched with awe as Jamaica’s Usain Bolt broke the world record in the 200 meters, Medals Per Capita took note of the trailing silver medalist, Churandy Martina. His medal gave the Netherlands Antilles a rating of one medal per every 225,369 citizens, an abrupt Olympic revolution that rocketed Netherlands Antilles above all others to rule the earth.

The entire world looked up at Antilles so allegedly lesser, and not only that, but the government of the Netherlands Antilles plans to disband at some as-yet unspecified date, dividing into various new nations. It would hold this title forever unchallenged.

Glory be.

Just then, though, picky track and field officials stepped in. They noted that Martina stepped out of his lane during the race, blah blah blah, if we must dwell on such minutiae. They disqualified both Martina and the apparent bronze medalist, American Wallace Spearmon.

And Netherlands Antilles’ day on the throne unfortunately became memorable only to connoisseurs of MPC trivia. But remember we shall.

I mean, I shall.

Medals Per Capita minutiae from Wednesday:

-- There’s quite the donnybrook at the top, also resulting from that men’s 200 meters. Bolt’s latest bolt lifted Jamaica to seven medals total and eked out a lead over Slovenia, arranging a fur-flying four-day finish, with the Bahamas still to have a say. All these days and all this sweat in Beijing, and the margin is only 924. The Jamaicans finished sixth in MPC in Athens and clearly aimed to improve upon even that glittering showing.

-- Look out for Cuba, which tends to flourish late given excellence in matters like boxing and baseball, and which has turned up alongside the persistently excellent Belarus with 13 medals, and just behind No. 8 Belarus in MPC.

-- Afghanistan has a population of 32 million, not conducive to MPC championships, but the very idea that taekwondo maestro Rohullah Nikpai could win the nation’s first medal, while hailing from a violence-ravaged area of a war-ravaged country, makes even the noble, cold long division of MPC seem insufficient. This medal deserves its own category, in which it ranks No. 1. Or higher.

The top 10:

1. Jamaica (7) - 400,618
2. Slovenia (5) - 401,542
3. New Zealand (9) - 463,717
4. Australia (36) - 572,246
5. Armenia (5) - 593,717
6. Estonia (2) - 653,802
7. Bahrain (1) - 718,306
8. Belarus (13) - 745,059
9. Cuba (13) - 878,765
10. Denmark (6) - 914,120

Selected Others:

11. Norway (5) - 928,891
13. Georgia (4) - 1,157,710
22. Britain (37) - 1,647,132
41. Greece (3) - 3,574,272
42. United States (82) - 3,705,178
50. Japan (23) - 5,534,279
53. Israel (1) - 7,112,359
70. Afghanistan (1) - 32,738,376
75. Mexico (2) - 54,977,700
79. India (2) - 573,997,949

--Chuck Culpepper

Culpepper is a contributor to The Times.

Photo: Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles celebrates winning silver in the men's 200-meter final Wednesday night, but not for long. He was later disqualified for a lane violation. Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Eddy Pimp]

That's Just Stupid...I Feel Sorry 4 Churandy...He Really wanted 2 bring a medal back 2 his hometown..but life ain't fare..We gotta live with that..

[John]

I love this blog. Come on New Zealand!!!

Before found this blog I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on my own spreadsheet. Now you save me the work!

[Tracy Segal]

And China? From what I can tell ... 16,732,302

[Ivo Grijt]

Great story, well written!

What alot of people in bigger nations like the US itself do not realise is what impact these "Island boys" like Usain and Churandy have on the local youth. They show them that if they want something bad enough to work hard for it, they can achieve greatness on a world scale.

I personally think that if the judges didn't see or come up with an infringement during or right after the race, then it should be final. How many soccer championships for instance haven't been decided by the referee's judgement of what he saw rather than what TV camera's seem to show? And in this case it took a full 90 t0 120 minutes before they could produce any evidence that still wasn't that evident.

In any case, in the hearts of all Antilians everywhere in the world these day will not be forgotten, when Churandy was the 4th fastest man on this planet on the 100 meters and 2nd fastest on the 200 meters. Out of 5+ billion people, that's simply breathtaking.

[Paul]

How about a Gold Medals per Capita table? After all it's winning that counts!

[George]

USA shame on YOU!!! I have seen the replay several times and I must say that the money and political power of the USA is taking the upper hand.
It's the only explanation. With this you have destroyed a whole nation of celebrating their first ever medal in the Olympics track & field. Shame shame shame on U You just couldn't believe and coop with the reality that our Churandy would win the very best of the USA.
I’m still very proud of Churandy he has proven that he is indeed better that all of the USA!

[Guen]

Life just aint fair. He really deserved it. And he didn't even interupt any of the competitors by juz stepping on the line! So disqualification was really unfair here.
Churandy keep ya head up, nobody can take your achievements away from you!

[F. V. Macaya]

This is only to show how powerfull United States of America is in dealing with smaller countries and entities. USA saw a chance by making use of there own TV camera to desqualify one of there athletes together with Shurandy Martina in order to grab both the Silver and Bonze medals in the men's 200m track finals yesterday.
USA could not bear that a small country of amper 200.000 people won the silver medal in front of all their powerfull and rich athletes. Therefore they have made use of this occasion to grap the two medals. The time span of one and a half to two hours before reaching the decision by the referees and judges is already a questionmark. We the people of the Netherlands Antilles, together with Shurandy will never forget his victory, which USA try to take away from him.
We will keep training and will come back