Olympics: NZ third on alternate medal table

New Zealand's Mark Todd, Jonelle Richards, Caroline Powell, Jonathan Paget and Andrew Nicholson after winning a Bronze medal in the Equestrian Eventing. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Don't be fooled by the official Olympic medal table showing New Zealand in 37th place.

An alternative table reveals the Kiwis are actually in third, ahead of superpowers China, the US and Australia.

The Statistics New Zealand table measures medal strike rate relative to population.

It puts Qatar, the 39th ranked Olympic nation with just one bronze medal, in first position after taking into account the nation's 1.8 million population.

New Zealand's two bronze medals are enough to put it in third with about 0.45 medals for every million residents - ahead of 5th ranked Australia.

China was the day five leader on the traditional Olympic medal table with 17 gold, nine silver and four bronze medal.

However on the Statistics New Zealand table the nation ranks 42nd because of its massive 1.3 billion population.

When taking into account only gold medal count per head of population, Slovenia was first, followed by Lithuania and Georgia.

That should change if New Zealand's gold medal rowing hopes are realised on Friday.

- Herald Online