Even more gold for the EU as a single entity? In the 20th century nearly half of all gold medals went to Europe, which is not surprising as it is home of most world record holders and champions in Olympic disciplines. But in team competitions (4 x 100m relays, football, etc.) Europe cannot simply form a superb team by assembling the best athletes of all EU nations. Hence often some non-EU team wins, although it could not expect to beat the EU all star team. On the other hand, the EU nations currently send more athletes than a unified EU would send. Although the top-ranked favorites usually get the gold, this increases the chances that some second rate EU athlete wins gold just by accident in case all favorites fail to deliver. How often does this happen? Could such occasional luck make a significant difference in the overall gold count?

All time per capita rankings must take into account historic census data 1896-2008, since nations have grown at varying speeds. Such rankings are dominated by Norway (5 million inhabitants as of 2006) and East Germany (16 million in the 1980s). Compare: Germany: 80 million (2006), USSR: 270 million (1980), US: 300 million (2008), EU: 490 million (2008).

European bias. The Olympics as a European invention are biased towards popular European sports. An alternative bias towards, say, popular Asian sports would probably yield a different picture.