SCORPIO

After the ease with which I was able to polish off Libra, I was prepared for a different passage through Scorpio. If people know nothing else about a scorpion, they know that it has a sting in its tail.

The nearest thing to a sting that I could think of in the Olympic sports was Fencing. This was backed up by my knowledge of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo gives Frodo his sword called Sting.

My first analysis of Fencing medals was not very promising. Although Scorpio Fencers were awarded more medals than chance, it was nowhere near significant and they were second to Pisces in the medals table.

It was only when I looked at the medals for the three types of Fencing weapons that a very interesting picture emerged.

For the Foil, which is the lightest of the weapons, there is a significantly uniform distribution of medals, which means that the numbers of medals awarded to athletes of Zodiac signs are very near to those expected by chance. This isn’t especially interesting in itself but the chart of the distribution of Men’s Foil competitions shows the sting in this one.

All Men’s Foil Competitions

For athletes born in Aries through to those born in Libra, there are fewer medals than expected by chance. But, starting at Scorpio and going on through to Pisces they are awarded more medals than expected! 

Looking at the épée next, the sting in the tale is that these Scorpio fencers are awarded significantly less than expected, with a probability of about 1 in 50.

All Épée Competitions

But the biggest sting for Scorpios is in the sabre competitions where the Scorpio sabreurs really excel. The probability for Scorpio here is in the region of 1 in 100,000.

All Men’s Sabre Competitions

 The chart shows the Men’s sabre competitions. Women’s Olympic sabre competitions only started in 2004 so there is insufficient data for analysis. 

So why is there such a difference in the distribution of medals to the different Zodiac signs? In particular, why do Scorpio sabreurs win so many medals compared with their épée counterparts? It is possibly because the sabre is a cutting rather than a thrusting weapon. Hence “sabre tactics rely much more heavily on footwork with blade contact being kept to a minimum.” (Wikipedia article on Fencing).

Having been a zoologist, the word footwork struck a chord with me regarding the mating behaviour of scorpions. Male scorpions, like some poisonous spiders, perform an elaborate courtship dance as part of their mating behaviour. The effect of this dance seems to be that the female is mesmerised into allowing the male to mate, rather than her seeing him as a meal.

Scorpios appear to be good at freestyle ski jumping, another dangerous sport.  This group of Olympic competitions is relatively recent, so the numbers of medals awarded are few, but out of the 22 skiers who have been awarded medals, 5 of them are Scorpios.

Another group of competitions that Scorpio athletes are significantly above expected is middle distance running. (Probability is 1 in 333).

All Track 400m, 800m and 1500m Competitions 

Admittedly, this group of competitions is not dangerous, but it does show off another Scorpio trait. Just as scorpions are only found in specific habitats, Scorpios only excel in specific subsets of sports. For instance, Scorpios perform wonderfully at sabre fencing but poorly in the épée competitions. They perform better than chance at freestyle skiing but get less than their expected number of medals in skiing as a whole. And on the track, they only outperform in middle distance running. Medal winners are below average when combining other Track Athletics events.

Another subset where Scorpios have a significant probability (almost 1 in 1,000), is in the 10,000m canoe/kayak competitions. These are labelled as C1, C2, K1 and K2 in the Olympics, the letters referring to Canoe or Kayak, and the numbers referring to singles or doubles. Other than this group, Scorpio is about average for canoes and kayaks.