The number of medals a country win in the London Olympics correlates with the number of its registered domains, a report on webhosting.info says.
It isn’t a direct match but the correlation is interesting. Criteria for registered domains varies, sure, but a high number of domains shows a culture of entrepreneurship and education quality.
Numerous factors influence the performance of a country’s athletes. Take my own country of origin — Belgium. Here two sports lead in popularity: soccer and cycling. The infrastructure, investments, medical research and development in Belgium even revolve around those two sports. Combine that with a culture that finds enjoying a good meal more important than keeping bodies in good condition, the result is a dearth of gold medals and world records.
Belgians have no impetus to invest in athletic performance, perhaps.
With 79,617,101 domains registered, the United States ranks highest in terms of the sheer number of registered domains. This corresponds with its first place standing at the Olympics medal table and 104 medals overall by the end of the Games. China, with 87 Olympic medals at this writing, is in second place medal-wise. China ranks third in the registered domains list with 5,220,289 domains.
The United Kingdom ranks fourth on the domain list and did well with 67 medals — a fourth place at the Olympic Medals Table.
Look at Germany. With 44 medals, it’s in fifth place. And the country ranks second in terms of its registered domains.
Russia breaks the correlation, though. At this writing, it ranks 19 in the domains list but it earned 87 medals
An explanation for Russia: Its lag in numbers of domain registrations is due to politics and the .ru domain widely seen as having a criminal undertone and offering no protection against cybersquatting.
