COUNTRIES

It has been found that many countries have significantly more medallists than expected for specific Zodiac signs. Some countries specialise in specific sporting disciplines which produces a knock-on effect. The following example will make this clear: Shooting, Sailing and Cross Country Skiing are all Olympic disciplines where Aries athletes score highly. Sweden is a country that is strong in these disciplines so it is no surprise that Sweden has more Aries athletes than expected.

 It is not always as easy as this to work out significances, however.

 Here is a list of countries where Aries scores significantly higher than expected. One asterisk after the country indicates that this country has significantly more Aries medallists than expected by chance. Significant means that the probability is greater than 1 in 20. Two asterisks means that the probability is greater than 1 in 100.

 Sweden**

Czechoslovakia*

India*

Czech Republic*

Hungary*

Finland*

Norway*

 The following neighbouring European countries have been added to this because they also score highly:

Denmark

Germany

East Germany

Bohemia

Switzerland

Austria

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Great Britain

gives the following chart. The probability of Aries medallists having this number by chance is nearly 1 in 100,000,000.

Medallists of Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, East Germany, Bohemia, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria

 What does this mean? Not all these countries specialise in Aries strengths like Sweden does, so it is worth speculating on other causes.

 One possibility is that the Aries strength is language/culture dependent. For instance, almost all the Germanic speaking countries are in the European chart, as are the Uralic speaking countries of Finland and Hungary.

 And the exceptions could be regarded as proving the rule. For instance, Czechoslovakia was officially a Slavonic speaking country but it had a large German speaking population. In 1993, it broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and it is the Czech republic which borders Germany that has the higher than expected medals for Aries.

 Another exception is Belgium, which is average in its count of Aries medals. This is what one would expect for a country where the population speak both Flemish (a Germanic language) and French.

 West German Aries medallists are under-represented and so are not listed above. To be absolutely correct, Germany should only be included up to 1936 Olympic Games, since it too is slightly under-represented after 1945.

 India was the one country on the Aries significance list which was not in Europe. It can be combined with the medallists of Iran and Pakistan to give the following chart with a probability for Aries at well over 1 in 100.

India, Pakistan and Iran

The area that these countries cover used to be part of the Persian Empire and the Persian language was spoken throughout it. Nowadays, there is still a language link between Iran and India but Arabic is spoken in Pakistan. Interestingly, the very high Capricorn count in this chart is very largely caused by the Pakistan medallists.

 No country has a significantly high number of Taurus medallists and only one, Mexico, has a significantly high Gemini count. It is another example of a significance being obtained through the country’s sporting strength. Half of its medallists are Equestrians and Gemini is an Equestrian sign.

Moving on to Cancer, I can find only one group of contiguous countries, where there are more Cancer medallists than expected. The full list is given below in the chart.

All American countries south of Mexico excluding Brazil, Argentina, Chile & Uruguay

(i.e., Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Ecuador, Peru,

Paraguay)

 Having 12 medallists out of a total of 56 gives a very high significance score. Unfortunately, statisticians are rightly wary of significances where the expected value is less than 5. In this case, we would expect Cancer medallists to score 4 or 5 medals by chance, so this significance is one that should await more medals before commenting.

 Out of the countries that have enough medallists on which to do a statistical test, none is significant for Leo. There is one combination of countries where Leo is significant, however, but only for its male athletes. It is the combined count of United States and Canada. The chart below shows this count and it is significant for Leo at just over 1 in 20.

United States and Canada male medallists

 A significance as low as this may occur by chance, however.

 Obviously, if many tests for significance are made, it is likely that a significance will occur just by chance. It is interesting nonetheless that the only possible significances for the three summer signs of Gemini, Cancer and Leo are all in the American continent.

 Virgo is a more significant sign in relation to countries, particularly those in Africa and the Middle East. For the group of countries listed below, Virgo is significant at the 1 in 50,000 level.

Medallists from South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Israel & Syria

There is no sport or group of related competitions that dominate this list of Virgo medallists and in view of the high probability level, it seems that this group of countries may well be associated with this sign in a real sense.

There are no countries significantly associated with Libra. It seems to have a balanced geographical spread of medallists.

A look at countries where Scorpio is above average in representation shows several that are near or next to each other. These are shown in the chart below. The probability of these Scorpio medallists coming from a chance population is 1 in 100,000.

All Medallists from East Germany, Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia

East Germany and Austria were also included in the Aries chart but they are both more significant for Scorpio than Aries.

 America and Africa show significances for Sagittarius. The American significance occurs in Canada where the Sagittarius probability is over 1 in 100. This is of particular interest when set against the United States medallists where Sagittarius medallists are significantly fewer than expected by chance. Here are the two charts.

All medallists from Canada

All medallists from the United States

The other Sagittarius significance is the group of Central African countries shown below. Sagittarius is significant at over the 1 in 100 level.

All medallists from Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ivory Coast

Capricorn, like Aries, shows high probabilities for related countries.

 Here are the countries with positive significances for Capricorn. As with the Aries list, one asterisk means greater than 1 in 20. Two asterisks means that the probability is greater than 1 in 225.

 Pakistan**

Soviet Union**

China**

Germany*

 The combined probability of these countries for Capricorn medallists is over 1 in 10,000. This probability can be increased to over 1 in 100,000,000 by including the neighbouring countries of Poland, Belarus and Slovakia but at this level of significance this hardly seems necessary. The chart for the significant Capricorn countries is shown below.

All Medallists from the Soviet Union, Pakistan. China and Germany

 As with Aries, it would be more correct to only take those athletes who gained their medals born before the Second World War for Germany.

 It is also interesting that Russia is not on the list of significant Capricorn countries, even though the Soviet Union is highly significant for Capricorn medallists.

In fact, Capricorn Russian athletes were well represented before the First World War. Four out of a total of seven medallists were Capricornian. It is only in the years from 1992 when Russia again was considered a country that their Capricornian medallists are, if anything under-represented.

 What seems to be happening here is that countries that historically are considered to be strong, military regimes, such as the Soviet Union and pre Second World War Germany, have a higher percentage of Aries and Capricorn medallists compared with the countries that replaced these regimes. I think this is because these signs are associated with military and hard endurance sports. Aquarius, the sign that is most prominent in modern Germany and Russia, has its strengths in Track Cycling and Volleyball which could be termed “softer” sports than, for example, wrestling and boxing which are Aries and Capricorn sports respectively

 There have not been enough medals awarded to modern Germany or to Russia for this trend to be statistically significant yet but it would not be surprising if in the future it did become significant.

 Aquarius has a diverse group of countries where it appears as the top significance. They are, in order of significance,

• Czech Republic
• Italy
• Finland
• Portugal
• Russia
• Estonia
• Norway
• West Germany
• Yugoslav Federation
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• Australia
• Indonesia

  The first five countries alone are enough to make Aquarius significant at the 1 in 100,000,000 level and here is the chart for these countries.

All medallists from the Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, Portugal, Russia 

There is nothing obvious that connects all these Aquarius countries together. It just seems to be that more medallists are born in Aquarius than any other Zodiac sign.

On coming to Pisces, it could be expected that the countries with the highest number of medals in Swimming and Water Polo would be the ones featured here. Surprisingly, they are not. None of the top twenty aquatic countries is even significant for Pisces. Nor is their combined probability significant. The group of countries where Pisces is significant is in south-east Europe and, at over 1 in 2,000,000 probability, is not manufactured.

All medallists from Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Turkey & Slovenia

Pisces always seems to come up with something!