๐ŸŽ‚ Birthday Paradox ยท Sports
โ† All sports

Olympic Speed Skating (Skating)

Delegation

219 team lists ยท 2,327 player entries ยท avg team size 10.6

Read this sport as a comparison between raw coincidence and what team size alone predicts. Here, the real rate is +4.9 points above the birthday-paradox baseline.

Real team lists
19.6%
teams with shared birthdays
Why it matters: This is the headline rate, but it should never be read without team size.
Expected from size
14.8%
from avg team size
Why it matters: This is the fair baseline: what same-size random teams would do.
Gap from expected
+4.9 points
real โˆ’ expected
Why it matters: Positive means the sport has more birthday matches than size alone predicts.
Team lists
219
teams analysed
Why it matters: Enough team lists for a useful sport-level read.
What to notice: The best question on a sport page is not "is the real rate high?" but "is it high after accounting for team size?" That is what the gap card is answering.

Country comparison

Countries with the most team lists for Olympic Speed Skating (Skating), charted by the share of teams with at least one shared birthday.

What to compare: This view is best for spotting sample-shape differences inside a sport. Among the highest-sample countries, URS has the highest observed rate, with an average team size of 14.7.

Gender split inside this sport

Real and expected rates for labelled team lists in this sport.

Why it matters: The gender gap is mostly a team-size story. Women have the larger average team size here (11.1 athletes), so their birthday-match rate naturally rises.

By country

Top 40 countries by team-list count.

CountryTeam listsAvg playersReal
NOR249.18.3%
USA2313.130.4%
JPN2012.620.0%
NED2012.125.0%
CAN1712.123.5%
SWE138.315.4%
KOR1210.616.7%
GER1112.327.3%
CHN1111.727.3%
FIN96.60.0%
URS914.733.3%
ITA96.20.0%
RUS616.033.3%
POL59.220.0%
KAZ57.040.0%
PRK46.50.0%
FRG46.80.0%
GDR49.550.0%
AUT36.70.0%
GBR35.30.0%
BLR25.00.0%
EUN118.00.0%
FRA15.00.0%
HUN15.00.0%
ROC115.0100.0%
SUI15.00.0%
What to notice: Countries with larger average teams will naturally show more shared birthdays. The country list is most useful for finding which samples are driving this sport's overall rate.

By gender

Where the dataset records it.

GenderTeam listsRealExpectedGap
Women14922.8%15.9%+6.9 points
Men7012.9%12.3%+0.6 points

Sample team lists

Largest teams in the dataset.

TeamSeasonPlayersRepeatsExpected chance
JPN Speed Skating (Skating) (2002 Winter) ยท JPN2002 Winter20141.1%
NED Speed Skating (Skating) (2006 Winter) ยท NED2006 Winter20141.1%
NED Speed Skating (Skating) (2014 Winter) ยท NED2014 Winter20241.1%
NED Speed Skating (Skating) (2018 Winter) ยท NED2018 Winter20141.1%
USA Speed Skating (Skating) (1992 Winter) ยท USA1992 Winter19137.9%
NED Speed Skating (Skating) (2010 Winter) ยท NED2010 Winter19137.9%
CAN Speed Skating (Skating) (2006 Winter) ยท CAN2006 Winter18134.7%
JPN Speed Skating (Skating) (1998 Winter) ยท JPN1998 Winter18134.7%
USA Speed Skating (Skating) (2010 Winter) ยท USA2010 Winter18134.7%
RUS Speed Skating (Skating) (2014 Winter) ยท RUS2014 Winter18134.7%
What to notice: The sample team lists show the mechanics: once the player count gets large, the expected chance climbs quickly, and each repeat is another player landing on a date already present.