2016 Olympic Games

2016 Was A Historic Year For U.S. Distance

2016 Was A Historic Year For U.S. Distance

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were historic for U.S. track and field, but especially the distance men and women.By scoring the meet 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, Team USA

Aug 22, 2016 by Gordon Mack
2016 Was A Historic Year For U.S. Distance
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were historic for U.S. track and field, but especially the distance men and women.

By scoring the meet 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, Team USA earned a staggering 345.5 points with 32 total medals. To put that into perspective, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Jamaica's combined score was 346 points with 32 total medals. From that vantage, Team USA is essentially the Jamaican sprinters combined with the Kenya/Ethiopian distance runners. See below:

TOP 10 TEAM SCORES:
01) 345.5 USA
02) 149.0 KENYA
03) 121.0 JAMAICA
04) 97.5 GREAT BRITAIN
05) 87.0 CHINA
06) 76.5 GERMANY
07) 76.0 ETHIOPIA
08) 68.0 CANADA
09) 60.0 FRANCE
10) 47.5 POLAND

From the 800m to marathon, U.S. men beat distance powerhouse Kenya. Wow! See below:

MEN'S DISTANCE TEAM SCORES:
01) 54.0 pts USA
02) 52.0 pts KENYA
03) 25.0 pts ETHIOPIA
04) 23.0 pts GREAT BRITAIN
05) 16.0 pts ALGERIA
06) 15.0 pts FRANCE

The women also put up impressive numbers, but the Kenyan and Ethiopian women were dominant once again in 2016. See below:

WOMEN'S DISTANCE TEAM SCORES:
01) 79.0 pts KENYA
02) 51.0 pts ETHIOPIA
03) 27.0 pts USA
04) 19.0 pts BAHRAIN
05) 10.0 pts SOUTH AFRICA
06) 8.0 pts BURUNDI

The U.S. women's 27 points and the men's 54 points are the most points that American distance runners have scored in recent Olympic history. See below:

U.S. WOMEN'S OLYMPIC HISTORY

YEAR TOTAL 800 1500 Steeple 5K/3K 10K Marathon
2016 27 1 11 7 0 3 5
2012 7 4 3 0 0 0 0
2008 8 0 2 - 0 6 0
2004 9 3 0 - 0 0 6
2000 1 0 1 - 0 0 0
1996 0 0 0 - 0 0 0
1992 15 2 0 - 6 7 0
1988 21 10 1 - 3 7 0
1984 28 11 1 - 6 - 10
1980 0 0 0 - - - -
1976 1 0 1 - - - -
1972 0 0 0 - - - -

U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC HISTORY

YEAR TOTAL 800 1500 Steeple 5K 10K Marathon
2016 54 7 11 11 12 4 9
2012 46 9 13 4 7 8 5
2008 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2004 8 0 0 0 0 0 8
2000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1996 9 2 0 4 3 0 0
1992 9 6 1 2 0 0 0
1988 15 4 4 3 4 0 0
1984 25 8 4 11 2 0 0
1980 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1976 22 6 3 0 0 0 13
1972 34 10 0 0 5 4 15
When breaking down the events by country, China is the greatest at race walk, the U.S. women are the best at sprinting, and the U.S. men own distance running. See below:

RANK PTS/EVENT EVENTS
01 14.00 CHN Race Walk
02 13.57 USA Women's Sprints
03 13.17 KEN Women's Distance
04 10.50 USA Men's Jumps
05 9.38 USA Women's Jumps
06 9.00 USA Men's Distance
07 8.71 JAM Women's Sprints
08 8.67 KEN Men's Distance
09 8.50 ETH Women's Distance
10 8.25 GER Men's Throws
11 8.14 JAM Men's Sprints
12 6.00 USA Multis
12 6.00 CAN Multis
12 6.00 USA Men's Sprints
Nike Oregon Project had an amazing Olympics, and racked up four medals while the Oregon Track Club earned three and the Bowerman Track Club got one. See below:

Nike Oregon Project: Alberto Salazar
01 Matthew Centrowitz (1500m)
01 Mo Farah (5,000m)
01 Mo Farah (10,000m)
03 Galen Rupp (Marathon)
04 Shannon Rowbury (1500m)
05 Galen Rupp (10,000m)
17 Suguru Osako (10,000m)
28 Suguru Osako (5,000m)

Bowerman Track Club: Jerry Schumacher
02 Evan Jager (3,000m Steeplechase)
04 Mo Ahmed (5,000m)
05 Betsy Saina (10,000m)
06 Shalane Flanagan (Marathon)
08 Colleen Quigley (3,000m Steeplechase)
09 Amy Cragg (Marathon)
10 Matthew Hughes (3,000m Steeplechase)
11 Courtney Frerichs (3,000m Steeplechase)
11 Shelby Houlihan (5,000m)
11 Emily Infeld (10,000m)
32 Mo Ahmed (10,000m)

Oregon Track Club: Mark Rowland
01 Ashton Eaton* (Decathlon)
02 Francine Niyonsaba (800m)
03 Brianne Theisen-Eaton* (Heptathlon)
08 Ben Blankenship (1500m)
11 Hassan Mead (5,000m)
14 Aisha Praught (3,000m Steeplechase)
17 Alexi Pappas* (10,000m)
18 Mo Aman (800m)
30 Charles Jock (800m)
40 Tom Farrell (5,000m)
*Not coached by Rowland

Even when you scale the nations by population, the U.S. was still the best at the 2016 Olympics.

While most people would simply divide the points scored by population, this is not correct because countries are limited to three entries per event. Therefore, we use the following formula.

% of POP = Country's Population / World Population
World Population = only countries competing in T&F
This allows us to see how big each country is compared to each other. For example, China is 37 percent of the competing population, USA is 8.7 percent, etc.

% of MAX = Points Scored / 1,128
1,128 = Points a country would score if they went 1-2-3 in all 47 events.
This allows us to see how successful each country was on a scale of 0-1, with 1 being a perfect meet where the nation swept every event. USA was at a .306.

FloFactor = (% of MAX) / (SUM of % of MAX)
SUM of % of MAX = If you add up all of the country's % of MAX in this case it is 1.62
This allows us to see how sucessful each country was compared to each other. USA was 18.9 percent.

% Diff = FloFactor - % of POP
This provides a figure for whether a nation over- or under-achieved based on population advantage. If you look at China, they have 37 percent of the population, but only had 4.8 percent of the Olympic success; thus, they underachieved by 32.5 percent. USA has 8.7 percent of the population, and had 18.9 percent of the Olympic success; thus, they overachieved by about 10 percent.

RNK COUNTRY PTS Pop. % Diff FloFactor % of MAX % of POP
01 USA 345.5 324M 0.101 0.189 0.306 0.08763
02 KEN 149.0 44M 0.070 0.081 0.132 0.01193
03 JAM 121.0 2M 0.065 0.066 0.107 0.00074
04 GBR 97.5 65M 0.036 0.053 0.086 0.01759
05 CAN 68.0 36M 0.027 0.037 0.060 0.00987
06 GER 76.5 81M 0.020 0.042 0.068 0.02210
07 POL 47.5 38M 0.016 0.026 0.042 0.01039
08 FRA 60.0 64M 0.015 0.033 0.053 0.01746
09 ETH 76.0 101M 0.014 0.042 0.067 0.02752
10 CRO 26.0 4M 0.013 0.014 0.023 0.00113
67 BRA 25.0 206M -0.042 0.014 0.022 0.05581
69 CHN 87.0 1.3B -0.325 0.048 0.077 0.37244