The United States sent a record 230 athletes to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. From which 50 states do those athletes come? It’s easy to guess that California and New York are responsible for sending the most athletes, as they’re two of the most populous states in the nation. But what happens when you rank the states in terms of athletes per resident instead of total athletes? With the help of numbers from The Washington Post and Business Insider, we found out which state is king of the Winter Games.
1. Vermont (13 athletes): 1 for every 48,000 residents
Vermont has the sixth-most Olympians despite having the second-smallest population, hence the state’s spot atop the per capita Olympian rankings.
2. New Hampshire (9 athletes): 1 for every 146,000 residents
Each of the nine athletes from the Granite State is involved in a skiing or snowboarding event.
3. Alaska (4 athletes): 1 for every 178,000 residents
[Obligatory joke about Alaska’s four Olympians seeing Russia from their home state.]
4. Utah (15 athletes): 1 for every 184,000 residents
After Sage Kotsenburg’s slopestyle gold, skier Ted Ligety and ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson are among the athletes hoping to add to Utah’s medal count.
5. Colorado (19 athletes): 1 for every 265,000 residents
Colorado’s 19 Olympians — including Sochi’s potential breakout star, Mikaela Shiffrin — are tied for second-most of any state. Colorado was followed by Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin. See the rest at Business Insider. We’ve listed some other notable states below.
17. New York (19 athletes): 1 for every 1,020,000 residents
Six of the 25 members of the USA men’s hockey team were born in the Empire State.
21. California (20 athletes): 1 for every 1,863,000 residents
The 20 athletes from California are the most for any state, but a population of approximately 38 million means Cali ranks near the middle in the per capita rankings.
38. North Carolina (1 athlete): 1 for every 9,535,000 residents
Twelve states sent one athlete to Sochi. Despite that small number, Wyoming is 12th in the per capita rankings because of the state’s small population. North Carolina is the biggest of the one-athlete states, so the Tar Heels rank last among states with Olympians.
50. Tennessee (0 athletes): 0 for every 6,346,000
But North Carolina isn’t really last. That distinction belongs to one of the 12 states without representation at the Winter Olympics: Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia. Of those states, Tennessee has the biggest population, making the Volunteers No. 50 in the rankings. The state can boast that two of its professional hockey players will compete in Sochi, but the two Nashville Predators defensemen — Shea Weber and Roman Josi — will play for Canada and Switzerland, respectively.
All this talk about per capita Olympians necessitates a mention of Trøndelag, the tiny Norwegian region of 400,000 people that was responsible for eight of the country’s nine gold medals in Vancouver. That makes the rest of the world seem like Tennessee.
(Athlete totals via Cindy Boren of The Washington Post. Thanks to Cork Gaines at Business Insider for the chart. Population data is from the 2010 census. All per capita rates are rounded.)