The data people over at Facebook have put together the map above—based on Facebook mentions—showing which Olympic sports different countries are talking about the most. Data are through the 13th; click here for a much larger version. There are tons of interesting tidbits in here, with usual caveats about sample size for small countries:
- The U.S. isn't the only figure skating-obsessed nation. Both men's and women's singles have their medal events after the 13th, and yet it looks like it was already the most talked about sport worldwide.
- Europe's was really into the biathlon—who knew!—although the Balkans prefer luge and ski jumping, while Finland and Sweden were into hockey.
- Japan and the U.K. won some snowboarding medals; looks like they were excited about it.
- You might not be surprised that Nepal and Togo's lone Olympic representatives were cross-country skiers, who finished 86th (in mens 15km classic) and 68th (in ladies 10km classic) respectively. Peru gave no love to its sole representative, also a cross-country skier.
- India was the most excited about hockey, which sort of makes you wonder if the Facebook data collection process differentiated between "ice hockey" and "field hockey," which is very popular there.
Every event is represented somewhere on the map, except for Freestyle Skiing and Skeleton, which were just getting started on the 13th. Hopefully Facebook will released an updated map towards the end of the games, so we can see just how insane the world gets once ladies single skating begins.