The shifting pattern of national participation in the modern Olympics

SINCE becoming an independent state in June 2011, South Sudan has had more important things to worry about than the establishment of an Olympic organising committee. So its marathon runner, Guor Marial, will have to compete under the five rings of the Olympic flag at this year's games, together with three athletes from the Netherlands Antilles. This quartet can consider themselves unfortunate, as athletes from 204 other countries will compete under national flags at London 2012. The timeline below, the first in our series of Olympic daily charts, shows how these numbers have changed since the days of the first modern games. Just 245 athletes from 14 countries headed to Athens in 1896. The one-man Australian team, in particular, punched well above its weight: Edwin Flack won both the 800m and 1500m, and came third (playing with an Englishman) in the tennis doubles.