Who sends most competitors to the Paralympics?

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THE biggest national team at the Paralympic games in London is from the host country, Great Britain. The British team is 295-strong, larger even than that of the world's most populous country, China. China topped the medal table at the games it hosted in Beijing four years ago, with Britain second, and these two countries were in the same position halfway through the London games. (America, which came third in Beijing, is trailing in sixth place at present.) Ranking the number of competitors on a population-weighted basis inevitably flatters tiny nations (Ireland is the biggest country in the top ten), but it does provide an interesting snapshot. Of the richer countries, Antipodean and Nordic nations appear to take their involvement in both the Olympics and the Paralympics pretty seriously. At the other end of the table, India and Indonesia, among the world's four most populous nations, have sent tiny teams to the Paralympics and share the lowest ranking with another ten countries. Around 40 nations, however, did not even make it into the ranking as they sent athletes to the Olympics but not to the Paralympics. Five countries have sent more competitors to the Paralympics than they did to the Olympics: Iraq, Rwanda, Iran, Thailand and Bosnia (not shown).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 10, 2012 2:38 AM
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