I’m fairly sure that’s not the reason. How often does an athlete for the hosts who wouldn’t have otherwise qualified go on to win a medal? I bet it isn’t very often.FiveThirtyEight crunched the numbers in 2016, but I don’t agree with their conclusions:
Is There Home-Field Advantage At The Olympics?
We’re on the ground in Rio covering the 2016 Summer Olympics. Check out all our coverage here. Does Brazil have a home-field advantage in Rio? Again and again, …fivethirtyeight.com
They ascribe the home advantage almost entirely to an increased number of competitors.
I’m fairly sure that’s not the reason. How often does an athlete for the hosts who wouldn’t have otherwise qualified go on to win a medal? I bet it isn’t very often.