OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Winners and losers in Barcelona: Hugh Jones puts some flesh on the bones of the last fortnight's statistics

SINCE the Seoul Olympics there have been undercurrents in politics and sport that have turned the medal tables. Politics is primary, controlling the inputs to sport whether wanted or not. Money, yes; drugs, no. Individuals themselves and the energy they can spare are also regulated from a political realm outside the charmed circles of the International Olympic Committee.

East German men won three medals of each category in the athletics in Seoul. The women got three gold, eight silver and seven bronze. Yet with only one athletics medal still to be won - in today's marathon - the consolidated German team in Barcelona have managed only one gold, one silver and one bronze among the men and three golds and three bronzes among the women. So East and West's combined total of 29 medals in Seoul is down to single figures in Barcelona. The Germans have been comprehensively swept off the track, their Barcelona athletics successes coming in field events, apart from solitary bronzes in the 50-km walk and heptathlon.

The Soviet Union has disappeared politically since Seoul but a semblance of sporting unity has been maintained. Only the three Baltic republics are competing outside the 'Unified Team' banner. Even that has cost a gold medal to their tally, Romas Ubartas winning gold in the discus for Lithuania.

When Atlanta comes around in 1996 the splintering process will have further eroded the old Soviet might. Up to last night they had gone down from 26 athletics medals in Seoul, from a theoretical maximum of 118, to 22 in Barcelona, mainly won by the women. Of those only 13 have been won by Russians. Three have been won by Ukrainians, two by Belarussians, and one has gone to Tajikstan. Had they not been lumped together, there would have been a few more tail-end entrants to the medals table: Tadzhikstan, Ukraine and Belarus.

Across all sports Russia remain the strongest of the states that once formed the Soviet Union, although Belarussia have made a good showing, mainly on the strength of Vitali Chtcherbo's six golds in the gymnnastics. Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine come next.

As for Cuba, two gold, a silver and three bronze medals in athletics in their first Olympic outing since 1980, as well as supplying many finalists, is the return on an investment that few other countries are still prepared to make.

Policing the new individualist regime in world athletics also requires an investment, which has not been forthcoming. The administration of drugs was an integral part of the comprehensive sports systems of the past. Drug use is now no less rife for being done freelance, but few authorities are serious about supressing it. The IOC tests only during the Games. Very few countries, not including the United States, have independently-administered, out- of-competition random testing programmes that would be the minimum requirement for containing the problem. The one small change for the better over the last decade seems to be that the authorities do at least declare the positive tests now.

Athletics now offers an escape for more than just the single Sarajevan who finished last in her 3,000 metres heat. In the political or economic quagmires of the old 'second world', and some parts of the emergent third world, drug use might look like a lifeline when offered. Olympic winning marks were down in the throwing events in Barcelona. Women's track records also seem out of reach on present Olympic evidence.

Meanwhile, step forward, Hungary - pound-for-pound the leading Olympic nation. For the table below we have awarded five points for a gold medal, three for a silver and one for a bronze, and then divided each country's total number of points into their population. That gives the rating figure in the final column. The lower the figure the better the country's performance.

----------------------------------------------------------------- HOW STANDARDS HAVE CHANGED SINCE SEOUL ----------------------------------------------------------------- Event Barcelona Seoul Change MEN 100m 9.96sec 9.92 - 200m 20.01 19.75 - 400m 43.50 43.87 + 800m 1min 43.66sec 1:43.45 - 1500m 3:40.12 3:35.96 + 5,000m 13:12.52 13:11.70 - 10,000m 27:46.70 27:21.46 - 3,000m s'chase 8:08.84 8:05.51 - 110m hurdles 13.12 12.98 - 400m hurdles 46.78 47.19 + high jump 2.34m 2.38m - pole vault 5.80m 5.90m - long jump 8.67m 8.72m - triple jump 18.17m 17.61m + shot 21.70m 22.47m - discus 65.12m 68.82m - hammer 82.54m 84.80m - javelin 89.66m 84.28m + decathlon 8,611pts 8,488 + 4x100m relay 37.40 38.19 + 4x400m relay 2:55.74 2:56.16 + WOMEN 100m 10.82 10.54 - 200m 21.81 21.34 - 400m 48.83 48.65 - 800m 1:55.54 1:56.10 + 1500m 3:55.30 3:53.96 - 3,000m 8:46.04 8:26.53 - 10,000m 31:06.02 31:05.21 - 100m hurdles 12.64 12.38 - 400m hurdles 53.23 53.17 - high jump 2.02m 2.03m - long jump 7.14m 7.40m - shot 21.06m 22.24m - discus 70.06m 72.30m - javelin 68.34m 74.68m - heptathlon 7,044pts 7,291 - 4x100m relay 42.11 41.98 - 4x400m relay 3:20.20 3:15.18 - - * + = improvement; - = deterioration -----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------- AFTER THE FALL ----------------------------------------------------------------- G S B Tot Soviet Union (1988) . . . . .55 31 46 132 Unified Team (1992) . . . . .44 36 27 107 G S B Tot East Germany (1988) . . . . .37 35 30 102 West Germany (1988) . . . . .11 14 15 40 Combined total (1988) . . . .48 49 45 142 Germany (1992). . . . . . . .27 21 27 75 - 1992 figures to date -----------------------------------------------------------------