First look at JWOC results and peer nations

I took a look at the JWOC results by looking at the U.S. and my list of "peer nations" after the first day's race.  You can read a bit of background on the peer nations approach.  Keep in mind that I've updated my nations list a bit since 2004.  My current groups is: Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and Portugal.

I calculated a U.S. win/loss record for the long distance race and I'll keep track of the results as more races occur (and probably post them eventually).

One of the reasons I like looking at peer nation results is that I notice things I wouldn't otherwise notice.  At today's JWOC race, for example, Japan had three runners in the top 100.  That seems like a pretty good result.

Though it has never caught on, I think the peer nations approach is a good way to look at overall performance and would be a good way of looking at how the US performance has changed over the years.  Personally, I think that it would make a good way of setting and measuring goals...except it hasn't every gotten any traction and it doesn't make sense to set goals that nobody but me pays attention to.

You can see some discussion of the US performance at today's race on Attackpoint where a number of posters are coming up with measures.

It is also worth a look at the goals that were posted before the JWOC began.    I'm not a fan of those specific goals, though I like the idea that:

...we want to state overall performance goals for JWOC tonight, then figure out what we need to do to get to those goals, and put them aside and not discuss them until after JWOC.  Instead, we'll be focusing on the process goals...

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