The Olympic medal table can tell some pretty interesting stories. For example, one might assume the biggest, wealthiest nations show up, flex their demographic muscles, and fly home with the most luggage. But when you look at the data through a different lens, demography isn’t destiny.

Enter MedalsPerCapita.com, an experiment from the Data Commons team designed to uncover hidden patterns when we contextualize medal totals with other national statistics. This isn’t about changing the results; it’s about revealing a different kind of achievement — the kind that shows up when you measure success relative to a country’s size.

As a New Zealander, I admit to a slight bias here. Kiwis are accustomed to being small fish in a big pond, yet we frequently find ourselves near the top of the per capita rankings — a phenomenon that makes watching the competition infinitely more enjoyable for those of us from smaller nations.

To bring this perspective to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, we’ve augmented live medal counts with Data Commons public data metrics like population, GDP and greenhouse gas emissions. 

By shifting the focus from absolute numbers to normalized data, the leaderboard looks very different. It’s no longer just about who has the most metal; it’s about who has the most mettle relative to their resources.

So, go ahead and play around with the data. Toggle the metrics, find the outliers, and cheer for the underdogs. It is time to give the little guys their moment in the sun — or at least, their moment on an illuminating scatter plot.

Let the games (and the data crunching) begin!