里约奥运已经开幕，各国的观众除了选择自己感兴趣的项目看比赛以外，还会格外关注自己国家在奖牌榜上的表现。在最近几届夏季奥运会上，中国、美国和俄罗斯一直在前三的位置上争来争去，其中，美国夺得第一的次数最多。

不过，如果我们不看奖牌总数，而是根据各国的人均奖牌数来排名的话。结果可能就完全不一样了。

There are no prizes for knowing that the US has won more Olympic medals than any other country since the first modern summer games were held in 1896.

自1896年第一届现代夏季奥运会举办以来，美国队获得的奖牌总数比其他国家都要多。这是人尽皆知的事实。

Kudos is due, however, to those who are able to name Finland as having won the most medals per Games contested relative to the country’s population size.

而能够根据国家人口数计算出每届奥运会的人均奖牌数，使得芬兰登上榜首的位置，这就值得说一说了。

To work out how well each country fared, we took the number of medals won by each – in Finland’s case 303 – and divided it by the number of summer Olympics competed in to get the average number of medals won. We then calculated the medal haul against each country’s 2015 population.

要计算出每个国家的人均奖牌数，我们先用每个国家获得的奖牌总数除以该国参加过的夏季奥运会次数，这样就得出了该国每次奥运会的平均奖牌数。然后，我们再用这个平均奖牌数除以该国2015年的人口总数。

By this measure the Olympic podium would see Finland – population 5.5 million – receive the gold medal, Estonia the silver and the Bahamas the bronze.

这样计算以后，站在奥林匹克领奖台最顶端的是芬兰(人口550万)，爱沙尼亚和巴哈马分获银牌和铜牌。

Finland’s record is still driven by its early successes. In the five Olympic Games held between Stockholm 1912 and Los Angeles 1932, the country won 148 medals, averaging almost 30 per Games.

芬兰的奖牌记录主要来源于早期奥运会上的成就。在1912年斯德哥尔摩奥运会和1932年洛杉矶奥运会之间的五届奥运会上，芬兰总共获得了148枚奖牌，平均每届约30枚。

Part of the success is attributable to the so-called Flying Finns, a group of long distance athletes including Hannes-Kolehmainen, Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi.

而芬兰的这些奖牌中，有一部分都是像汉内斯·科勒赫迈宁、维拉·里托拉以及帕沃·鲁米等长跑名将贡献的，这些人被称为“飞翔的芬兰人”。

芬兰长跑名将鲁米

Nurmi was one of the most successful Olympians of all time. He was one of just four athletes to win nine Olympic gold medals, not to mention three silvers, and the first to win five golds in one Games, in Paris in 1924.

鲁米是奥运史上最成功的运动员之一。他是仅有的四位获得九枚奥运金牌的运动员之一，而且他还得过三枚银牌。他还是首位在一届奥运会上获得五枚金牌的运动员，那是在1924年的巴黎奥运会上。

Finland has won medals at every summer Olympics since 1908.

自1908年开始，芬兰在每届夏季奥运会上都有奖牌收入囊中。

【考考你】

用上面的算法计算的话，中国的人均奖牌数是多少呢?