Colombia has won 19 medals in Olympic games since 1931 where 8 were won at London 2012, there is hard work to Coldeportes and Culture department to keep this path

Colombia has won 19 olympic medals since 1931, the last 8 were won at London Olympic Games 2012, therefore government has a hard work to keep this trend in the next Olympic Games in 2016 at Brazil. Coldeportes and Culture department, both government bodies, have to make their spending more efficient through professional coaches and proper infrastructure around Colombia, moreover Culture department has to increase her work to reach better citizens through education and programs around Colombia mainly those cities where people do not enjoy our culture as musical events, theater and so. There are 45 million of citizens in Colombia and Central Government spending on culture and sports is too low to the point to have reached a government spending of US$3.08 per capita and US$2.98  per capita respectively in 2012, moreover there was a real growth in culture and sports central government spending about -5.1% in 2011, in other words there was a decline in the real spending in these two activities or one can say that inflation was higher than nominal growth of central government spending on these activities. 

Author: Humberto Bernal,

Economist,

e-mail: zhumber@gmail.com

It can be download @ PDF click

Colombia has won 19 medals in Olympic Games since 1932 when she started to participate, these medals can be classified as 2 of gold, 6 of silver and 11 of bronze as table 1 shows. This result can be classed as poor, for instance Argentina has won 70 medals, Mexico has won 61 medals, of course there are countries in the region that have not won medals as Colombia did such as Chile that has a record of 13 medals. This result of 19 medals, where 8 were won in this 2012 Olympic Games, is the result of improvement of government spending since 2008 but there is still a lack of well developed sport system and well developed culture education system in Colombia. For instance the government spending on sports was US$0.24 per capita and US$0.59 per capita in culture in 2000, what sad. One can say that government did not care about healthy citizens by that year, this spending was regular until 2008 when it increased to reach US$1.87 per capita in sports and US$1.87 per capita in culture as figure 1 shows. Through this spending appears that Colombian government does not care about well educated people. This low spending is shown at cities where infrastructure for sport training is old, few culture promotion and neglected historical centers as floor and church at main squares in Bogotá and other cities. One hopes that cities develop better programs where young find rooms for training sports and citizen learn about our culture through musicals and theater.

Figure 1. Central government spending per capita on culture and sports in Colombia 2000 - 2012

(US$ current*)

*Data is calculated under official exchange rate and under total population.
Source: Government annual budget spending (government financing department).

Although in nominal terms there is an increase of government spending on sports and culture programs, in real terms there is not a regular trend as must be, for instance there was a decline of government spending on sport and culture about 5.1% in 2011 as figure 2 shows.

Figure 2. Real growth per capita in government spending on culture and sports

(% under PPP at 2005*)

*Real growth is calculated under international  Purchasing Power Parity at 2005 prices (PPP at 2005).
Source: Government annual budget spending (government financing department).

Table 1. Colombian medals in Olympic games 1932 to 2012

(number of medals)

Year	Host City	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1932	Los Angeles, United States	0	0	0	0
1936	Berlin, Germany	0	0	0	0
1940	Tokyo, Japan	Cancelled because of World War II
1944	London, United Kingdom	Cancelled because of World War II
1948	London, United Kingdom	0	0	0	0
1952	Helsinki, Finland	0	0	0	0
1956	Melbourne, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden	0	0	0	0
1960	Rome, Italy	0	0	0	0
1964	Tokyo, Japan	0	0	0	0
1968	Mexico City, Mexico	0	0	0	0
1972	Munich, West Germany	0	1	2	3
1976	Montreal, Canada	0	0	0	0
1980	Moscow, Soviet Union	0	0	0	0
1984	Los Angeles, United States	0	1	0	1
1988	Seoul, South Korea	0	0	1	1
1992	Barcelona, Spain	0	0	1	1
1996	Atlanta, United States	0	0	0	0
2000	Sydney, Australia	1	0	0	1
2004	Athens, Greece	0	0	2	2
2008	Beijing, China	0	1	1	2
2012	London, United Kingdom	1	3	4	8
	Total	2	6	11	19

 Source: London Olympic Games web page and Wikipedia.