NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport / Commonwealth Games

<i>Paul Lewis:</i> Dissecting Delhi

Paul Lewis
By Paul Lewis
Contributing Sports Writer·Herald on Sunday·
23 Oct, 2010 10:19 PM7 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Photo / AP.

The closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Photo / AP.

Paul Lewis
Opinion by Paul Lewis
Paul Lewis writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
Learn more
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Statistics and empirical measurements are supposed to be exact sciences; certain in their precision. Except when it comes to Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Ask people on the street how they felt New Zealand fared at the last two Commonwealth Games and the answer will almost certainly be words to
the effect of 'not bad' or 'average' or maybe even 'good' - and an oft-quoted line will be that we do well for a country of small population.

The statistics show that, in the last two Commonwealth Games (Melbourne 2006 and the just-completed Delhi Games), New Zealand's Games performance has slipped below historical levels of achievement.

Yet public perception does not mirror that. Part of the reason for that was that New Zealand's medal effort came with a rush at the end of the Delhi Games and promoted the feeling that all was well. It is also because Sparc, sport's funding body, has regrettably stopped its practice of setting targets for the numbers of medals they feel a New Zealand team should win at Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

They stopped because they came a gutser in 2006 when they set 45 medals as a goal and 31 were returned. The blowback was considerable and the forecasting halted.

But if there is not some easy, available measure how are we to know whether our Games performances are up to scratch? Sparc has a vested interest as they are the gatekeepers of our funding of elite athletes and high performance systems. While there is no doubt they are a genuinely committed and motivated organisation, there is equally no doubt that what they do - and the results of same - is not readily transparent to the man in the street.

Politicans are also not necessarily a good barometer, even though Trevor Mallard and current Sports Minister Murray McCully are well regarded by the sporting community generally when it comes to seeking and retaining money for development. But politicians do not always have the same visibility when things go wrong or stagnate.

So we come back to statistics. Like all stats, they depend on variables like the base on which they are configured and how they are applied; different applications can lead to different results.

Medal tables are flawed, no matter which way you tweak them (straight medal count; medals per head of population; medals per million people and GDP per medal). Even allotting points (like five for a gold, three for a silver and one for a bronze) can provide different results, depending on the value accorded each medal.

If you look at the Commonwealth Games results of the last 40 years - from the Edinburgh Games of 1970 to the Delhi Games of 2010, some solid themes begin to emerge.

* New Zealand's six gold medals in both Melbourne and Delhi are the smallest haul since the Games of 1994, 1982 and 1978 (five golds won at each). Sparc took over funding of New Zealand sport from the old Hillary commission in 2002.

* The total medal count of 31 (Melbourne) and 36 (Delhi) were the smallest since the 34 of 1998 (Kuala Lumpur) and 26 of 1982 (Brisbane).

* This diminished return has occurred while the number of Games sports has grown. In 1970, there were only nine sports contested and a grand total of 375 medals. Even by 1994, there were still only 10 sports. By 1998 - there were 15; 17 in Manchester in 2002; 16 in Melbourne and 17 again in Delhi with a total of 828 medals on offer. So, in theory, there have been more opportunities to win more medals in the years since 1998 yet, with the exception of Manchester 2002 (45 medals), New Zealand's medal tally has been at the lower end of the spectrum.

* If you compare the sports in Edinburgh to those in Delhi, among the 'new' sports are netball, sevens, shooting and squash - responsible for four of New Zealand's six gold medals this year. In 1970, New Zealand won only two golds. Take away the golds won in the 'new' sports in Delhi and there is an (admittedly simplistic) argument that we have not progressed in gold medal terms in traditional Games sports (cycling and athletics would dispute that).

Percentages:

Medal tallies can be flawed, however, by a nation enjoying salad days or by strength in depth in one or two sports. Jamaica, for example, had a fine Olympics in 2008 thanks to track star Usain Bolt and his cronies. Does that make them an all-round sporting power? Hardly.

Maybe a better way to compute sporting achievement, in hardware terms at least, is percentage of medals won against medals up for grabs. This at least takes into account the different number of sports and events contested at different Games.

If you track New Zealand over the last 40 years of Commonwealth Games, our medal percentage has typically been around five per cent. About 1 in every 20 medals is won by Kiwis.

In Melbourne (4.2 per cent) and Delhi (4.3 per cent), New Zealand's percentage of medals awarded was reduced - our lowest showings since Edinburgh, 1970 (3.7 per cent). Best 'away' results (Games such as Auckland 1990 and Christchurch 1974 can be skewed by home advantage) were Edinburgh 1986 (7.6 per cent of medals won) and Victoria in 1994 (6.1 per cent).

Population:

The usual form of rationalisation of New Zealand's results is that "we are just a small country." Some satisfaction is derived when medal tables are calculated on a medals-per-capita basis. This can also be misleading.

In Delhi, New Zealand managed to sneak one place above Australia when the medal count was recalculated on a 'population per medal' basis. Netball's last-minute gold medal meant New Zealand rose into 10th place, just a fraction ahead of Australia - but behind such small nations as Nauru (top, with 5,000 people per its two medals won), the Isle of Man, Samoa, Tonga and the Bahamas.

If the count is adjusted for countries which won 10 medals or more, New Zealand comes in second, behind Cyprus (population 1.1 million).

However, the thinness of this basis is exposed when you look at the Olympic tables of the past few Games.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, New Zealand came 10th on a population basis - but Australia came third. In 2004 (Athens), Australia came second on a per capita basis. In 2000, Sydney, they came fourth. In each case, New Zealand was well below them.

In addition, even if China had won every medal up for grabs in Beijing, they would still have finished 18th on the per capita table, below Ireland.

So that's one myth exploded. It's maybe also time that New Zealand stopped using the "little country" argument.

We never, for example, apply it when discussing renowned world beaters like the All Blacks or Valerie Adams. It seems it is used these days only when we are in rationalising or apologetic mode.

Advance Australia:

The Australians are the yardstick.

They have headed the medal table at all Commonwealth Games since 1970, except for Edmonton, 1978 (third) and Edinburgh 1986 (also third).

On a percentage basis (medals won against all medals awarded), Australia typically hovers on or near the 25 per cent mark - one in four medals are won by The Lucky Country. Their worst result was in 1978 when they won only 21.3 per cent of available medals.

Interestingly, Delhi in 2010 was their worst percentage result since then, even though they headed the medals table and won almost twice as many golds as India, the second best in medal terms. They won 177 medals of the 828 available (21.4 per cent).

That perhaps puts New Zealand's performance at Delhi more in context - and the Australians were alarmed at theirs and are taking steps (see accompanying story).

But any view of Australia's progress shows that, with some exceptions, they have consistently won the most medals and the highest percentage of those available across all competing countries at Commonwealth Games over the last 40 years.

So now we know it can't just be fobbed off as a population thing, what are Australia doing and what are they doing that New Zealand isn't?

Discover more

Commonwealth Games

Highs and lows of the Commonwealth Games

14 Oct 04:30 PM
Opinion

<i>David Leggat:</i> On final count, Delhi tops the table

15 Oct 04:30 PM
Opinion

Commonwealth Games: how they performed

15 Oct 04:30 PM
Olympics

Aussies set sights on Olympic gold

23 Oct 10:29 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Commonwealth Games

Premium
Black Ferns

Woodman-Wickliffe on babies, books, broadcasting and King’s Birthday honour

02 Jun 03:00 AM
Premium
Commonwealth Games

'Shifting stereotypes': Women lead NZ's weightlifting surge

29 Apr 09:12 PM
New Zealand

First day of the coronial inquest into the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Commonwealth Games

Premium
Woodman-Wickliffe on babies, books, broadcasting and King’s Birthday honour

Woodman-Wickliffe on babies, books, broadcasting and King’s Birthday honour

02 Jun 03:00 AM

She aims to start a family after the Rugby World Cup in England.

Premium
'Shifting stereotypes': Women lead NZ's weightlifting surge

'Shifting stereotypes': Women lead NZ's weightlifting surge

29 Apr 09:12 PM
First day of the coronial inquest into the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore

First day of the coronial inquest into the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore

Will New Zealand lose out with Commonwealth Games cutbacks?

Will New Zealand lose out with Commonwealth Games cutbacks?

22 Oct 07:30 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP