Tiny nations lead in alternative gold medal count

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Forget about the Olympic medal race between the United States and China. The real action is happening in places like Jamaica, New Zealand and the tiny island nation of Grenada.

At least that's according to one method for crunching the numbers that's being promoted by a New Zealand government agency.

Since last Thursday, Statistics New Zealand has been posting daily online updates of its "medal strike rate" - the number of gold medals won relative to each country's population.

On the traditional medal table, China finished ahead after 10 days of competition with 31 golds, while the United States was running a close second with 29.