Olympic home-court advantage: Russia wins big

I wrote an article about two years ago reviewing various methodologies to predict the home country's medal count. Nearly all of the relevant research at the time predicted between 24 and 31 medals, which is the range I used, backed by that same research.

Russia won 33 at the 2014 Winter Olympics - more than anybody predicted at that time.

The evidence strongly suggests that the hosting country will indeed outperform its previous results. Here is a table revealing this notion:

Year	Medals Awarded
2014* 2010	33 15
2006	22
2002	13

* Olympics held in Sochi, Russia

For 2018, the Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. How many will they grab? Stay tuned for a future article, but rest assured, it'll be more than they've ever won in years past.