2009-07-02T14:52:36-05:00

The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics began with a many bangs, courtesy of the thousands of drummers in the opening ceremony. Once competition began, a tally of medals won seemed like an obvious data set for Swivel. Since no-one else had embarked on this task, I decided to take it on myself. I included the result in <a href='http://www.stubbornmule.net/2008/08/online-data-and-charts-with-swivel/'>a blog post about Swivel</a> At first I was typing in the data, but scanning the medal table on the <a href='http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml'>Official Olympics site</a> quickly became a challenge. It was time for an automated solution, so I whipped up a little perl script to scrape the data and I now update the data fairly regularly (not quite real time though). I am pleased to say that this chart has been something of a runaway success in terms of visitors: at last count views had passed 9500 in two weeks. I attribute this, in part, to Olympics fever but I am sure that it has also been helped by being featured on the popular "<a href='http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/australian-tv-radio-coverage-2008-beijing-olympics-channel-7-sbs-abc/'>Random Thoughts</a>" blog. There is also an <a href='http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/29155645'>overal medal tally chart</a> based on the same data. I have now also <a href='http://www.stubbornmule.net/2008/08/olympics-by-gdp/'> written about</a> medal counts adjusted for population or gross domestic product (GDP).

2294 Beijing 2008 Olympics: Medal Count by Country {"format":{"series.default_0.stroke":{"color":"rgb(118, 81, 44)","width":2},"series.default_1.format":{"precedence":1,"format":{"c":true,"ns":true,"p":-1,"t":"n"}},"theme.plot_area.fill":"rgb(0, 0, 0)","series.default_0.fill":"rgb(118, 81, 44)","series.default_2.fill":"rgb(152, 146, 8)","series-manager.0.series-order":{"type":"custom","custom":[2,1,0]},"series.default_1.stroke":{"color":"rgb(92, 92, 92)","width":2},"series.default_1.fill":"rgb(92, 92, 92)","series.default_0.format":{"precedence":1,"format":{"c":true,"ns":true,"p":-1,"t":"n"}},"axis.y.format":{"c":true,"ns":true,"p":-1,"t":"n"},"axis.y.range":{"from":0,"to":110},"axis.x.format":{"ns":true,"p":-1,"t":"t"},"series-manager.0.dimension-order":{"reverse":true,"series":"default_2","type":"series","custom":[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,10,9,12,14,13,17,16,15,26,25,24,23,22,21,20,19,18,35,34,33,32,31,30,29,28,27,54,53,52,51,50,49,48,47,46,45,44,43,42,41,40,39,38,37,36,86,85,84,83,82,81,80,79,78,77,76,75,74,73,72,71,70,69,68,67,66,65,64,63,62,61,60,59,58,57,56,55]},"series.default_2.stroke":{"color":"rgb(152, 146, 8)","width":2},"series.default_2.format":{"precedence":1,"format":{"c":true,"ns":true,"p":-1,"t":"n"}}},"type":"StackedColumns"}

1UiV5f04adJ/3bLa8F3/9Q== Beijing 2008 Olympics Medal Count http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1016370 Beijing 2008 Olympics: Medal Count by Country

29155577

2010-01-08T18:21:40-05:00