Home advantage in the Olympic Games

This paper investigates the extent of home advantage in the Olympic games. The number and type of medals won by each country in the Modern Olympics is analysed. The total number of medals and gold medals win are highly correlated, and many countries show a highly variable performance as measured by the percentage of total medals win. There is a large home advantage or host country effect. The home country wins about three times their away percentage of medals, and about twice their average in the games immediately before and after their home games. There is also evidence that the mix of medals is richer, with home teams winning a proportion of gold medals higher than both their historical average and the proportion available.