Medals Per Capita website has New Zealand has fourth Photo: medalspercapital.com
The man behind a website tallying Olympic medals per capita, conveniently vaulting New Zealand to one of the top nations, is, not surprisingly a Kiwi.
Medals Per Capita is a website set up by New Zealand computer scientist Craig Nevill-Manning revealing the truth - that New Zealand is a far more decorated nation for Olympic medals than heavy hitters like the US, China and - and YES - Australia. New Zealand came fourth on the per capita medal tally in Paris behind the even tinier island nations of Grenada, Dominica and Saint Lucia.
At position nine, Australia barely makes the top 10. The US is at 47 and China, with its massive billion-plus population, is all the way down at 75.
"It is my little contribution to point out that New Zealand does really well," said Nevill-Manning, 55, who was born in Papakura and now works at Google's New York City location.
Craig Nevill-Manning is a Kiwi computer scientist. Photo: supplied
He started the website in 2008 and has kept it going during the Summer and Winter Olympics. Last Olympics, the BBC quoted data from his website on a story about per capita medals and this year, NBC, highlighted the site.
During the Olympics, the website draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each day. Outside of either the summer or winter Olympics, traffic is almost zero. The subheadline on the website is "Olympic Glory in Proportion."
"...one of the interesting things is the traffic tends to come from the little countries that do really well," Nevill-Manning said, pointing to Caribbean and Eastern Europe nations as frequent website visitors. "There are a whole bunch of countries that have amazing athletes. They don't win many medals, but they are tiny."
Of course, there are plenty of New Zealanders looking for an alternative narrative to our 11th place on the official medal tally (that places Australia in fourth). On Friday, New Zealanders using Google to search for "per capita medal tally" surged.
If Nevill-Manning hasn't kept the tally up to date, then he gets a barrage of emails from Kiwis also hoping to put their nation in the best light.
"Everybody tells me when I'm dragging behind, especially when New Zealand wins a medal," he said. "It's like an automated reminder."
Nevill-Manning, who did his undergraduate at the University of Canterbury and did his PhD at University of Waikato, doesn't make any money from the site. He just had the know-how and the tools to do it, so he did.
"I'm a bit of a data nerd," he said.
