National wealth worth weight in gold (medals)

“Higher GDP per capita may also be associated with higher average nutrition and health levels, which could also boost performance in some sports,” Hawksworth said.

Some smaller countries have broken through by sending their athletes to train at U.S. colleges. Also, former Soviet bloc states like Belarus and Cuba are still living off the fumes of the Big Red sports machine of the 1960s and 1970s.

The long-term key is having the national will to win more medals. Politics and pride are the engines.

It’s not known how much money China has plowed into its Olympic program, but it’s thought to be far more than the United States. According to Roush, the U.S. ranks No. 7 in Olympic funding among the 10 countries with the largest GDPs. Unlike nearly all other Olympic nations, Team USA gets no government backing; it is financed through corporate sponsorships, donations and broadcast rights fees — roughly $100 million a year.

And if money equals medals, the next Olympic breakthrough could be America’s frosty friends to the north. Three years ago, Team Canada launched a program called “Own the Podium” — a five-year, $110-million strategy to push Canada atop the medal standings when it hosts the winter Games in 2010.

Last year, Canada hired ex-swimming star Baumann to head a similar initiative for its summer athletes. Dubbed “Road to Excellence,” the scheme will dump $90 million of federal money into Canada’s Olympic pipeline to improve performance at the London Games four years from now.

In Beijing, Team Canada took some early ribbing from its fans back home, especially after it trailed Togo one medal to zero in the first week of competition. Some Canadians started to call their crew the “Ugly Betty” of the medal standings. As of Thursday, Canada had 15 medals.

“I do believe in Canada we have a ways to go to be coordinated and integrated,” Baumann said. “If we want to compete with the rest of the world, we have to commit to that.”

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