Popularity and Visibility Appraisals for Computing Olympic Medal Rankings

Abstract

Objective The ranking of countries in the Olympic Games generates a great deal of interest among analysts, academics, and fans. This article proposes an innovative approach to provide Olympic medals (gold, silver, and bronze) with different weights based on metrics of popularity and media visibility and create an alternative historical ranking. Methods The analysis uses “Google Trends” and “MERIT” appraisals to capture content and news articles on the Internet that relate to the different types of metals. Figures on weekly relative search intensity in Google and content in the Internet registered monthly are used to track changes over time and thus to control for differences between Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Results The results show that gold medals gather far more attention than silver and bronze medals. By applying the estimated multiplying factors, we create an alternative historical ranking of countries that shows some relevant changes. Conclusion The use of weights based on popularity and visibility has managerial implications and opens new avenues for future research.

Does certainty on the winner diminish the interest in sport competitions? The case of formula one

“…In each of the two alternative approaches, GTW and GTN, we examine the comparative intensity in searching information on the Formula One world drivers' 6 As a measure, it circumvents the problem of endogeneity that would be a concern when looking at, say, newspaper column inches, since this is a decision made by newspaper editors as a calculation based on anticipated interest in such content; editors make the decision because they anticipate the demand, rather than because the demand is there. There are several papers using the intensity of searches in Google Trends to approximate the degree of interest manifested by fans and the general public (Garcia-del-Barrio et al (2020), Aguiar-Noury and Garcia-del-Barrio ( 2019) and ( 2021). Previous studies (Vosen and Schmidt, 2011) show that Google Trends is reliable and helps to forecast the consumers" tendencies; actually, their "results show that in almost all conducted in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting experiments the Google indicator outperforms the survey-based indicators.…”