23/12/2025
I don't really get this stat. Podium efficiency should be based on the Number of Events competed not on the number of athletes.
For example, if we get a medal in a team sports with 20 athletes, so the podium efficiency is 5%? It doesn't make sense. Lol.
In the case of Vietnam, it only looks like they have small number of athletes because they don't compete in team sports like Cricket, Field Hockey, Floorball, Ice Hockey, Indoor Hockey, Kabaddi, Netball, Rugby, Softball, and Water Polo.
SEA Games 2025: A different look at the data?
Medal tallies in sport typically rank by gold medals. Rarely considered are silvers and bronzes, or important factors such as the number of athletes each country sends.
As SEA Games 2025 comes to a close, we thought we’d try a different way of looking at the medal data. Introducing Podium Efficiency, which shows - by participating country - the number of podium finishes as a percentage of the total number of athletes competing.
Three general tiers emerge: the 30-somethings (🇻🇳🇮🇩🇹), the 20-somethings (🇹🇭🇵🇭🇸🇬🇲🇾), and the rest (🇧🇳🇹🇱🇱🇦🇲🇲). Interestingly, not a whole lot separates those in the top half of the table.
A different reflection of where each country is at and what it can aspire toward, perhaps? (Of course, this still doesn’t account for differences across sports - individual vs team, single event vs multiple events, etc.)
Just a fun exercise to get us thinking... don’t take it too seriously ya 🤭
(Data sources: Wikipedia & SEA Games 2025 website)
