Measuring Olympics performance based on a distance-based approach

Measuring Olympics performance using either the Summer Olympic Games or Winter Olympics individually is criticized as a bias for participants. The present study develops a distance‐based approach based only on the number of medals won to propose Olympic ranking. A state‐of‐the‐art approach with mild weight restriction is used for integrating the performance in the lexicographic system. The common weights associated with the lexicographic and sum‐ranking systems for both Summer and Winter Olympic Games are determined to provide a fair ranking for National Olympic Committees. Application to the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games and Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics is used to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.