FORGET checking the Olympic medal count every day. A better way to see how nations stack up is to calculate how many athletes countries had to enrol to win a medal. East Germany bet on a combination of state intervention, talent and dubious training regimes—and still tops the list (although China is catching up fast). Ethiopia benefits from specialisation: all its 38 medals have come on the track and at distances of 3,000m or longer. See the results for the rest of the world.