So, the Paris 2024 Olympics are officially underway, and while we’re all watching the events, there is this weird new thing taking over Twitter.
It’s called the Dodger Score.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, don’t worry, I barely understood it when I first saw it pop up on my feed.
It basically comes from La Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian newspaper.
They decided to assign a number to every athlete competing in Paris.
The goal was to rank them based on their ‘risk’ of doping or breaking rules.
But honestly, looking at the list, it’s less of a science and more of a guess.
What Exactly is the Dodger Score?
Alright, let’s break it down.
The Dodger Score is a metric designed to highlight athletes who are considered ‘high risk’ for doping or violating fair play rules. But there’s a catch.
It’s not a formal rule from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA); it’s a journalistic tool.
The score isn’t just random, I guess. Now think about that for a second.
It looks at a bunch of factors like a country’s history with doping, the athlete’s sport (which sports have higher rates of bans?), and even their age.
The higher the number, the more ‘risky’ the athlete is perceived to be.
It’s basically a number assigned to tell you, ‘Hey, keep an eye on this person.’
How Did They Calculate It?
I was trying to figure out the math behind it, and honestly, it seems pretty subjective. Oddly enough,
They used something called a ‘risk factor’ which looks at historical data.
From what I’ve seen in their report, they analyzed past bans and national anti-doping records to generate these numbers.
So, if a country has a really bad reputation in the last decade for clean sport, their athletes get a bump in the score.
It’s a way to flag potential ‘Dodgers’ before the games even start.
It’s kinda like a credit score, but for honesty and cleanliness in sports.
You can check out the full breakdown on .
The Top ‘Dodgers’ of the Games
Okay, let’s talk about the actual people on the list.
Some of the names might surprise you.
The highest scores went to athletes from countries with spotty histories in anti-doping, often in sports like weightlifting and track and field.
- Alexandra Mykolenko (Weightlifting) – Scored incredibly high due to nationality history.
- Mykhailo Kokhan (Cycling) – Also in the top tier of risk scores.
- Rachel Moran (Canoe Sprint) – Surprisingly high on the list for a relatively clean sport.
It’s wild to see a canoeist up there with a doping risk score, isn’t it? But that’s the point of the score, to level the playing field across all sports.
Is the Dodger Score Fair?
This is where the argument starts.
Most people I’ve talked to say the score is lazy journalism.
Here is the problem: just because an athlete is from a country with a bad history, doesn’t mean they are a cheater.
Most athletes work their whole lives to get to the Olympics, and to paint them with a broad brush just because of where they were born? That feels unfair.
On the flip side, supporters say it’s necessary.
If you have a system that lets everyone compete on a level playing field, you have to account for the odds.
dives deeper into the ethical debate surrounding this.
What Athletes Are Saying
Not surprisingly, some of the athletes on the list are not happy about it.
Imagine training for four years and seeing your ‘Dodger Score’ plastered all over the internet.
It feels like guilt by association.
There was this one interview where a weightlifter basically said, ‘I train hard, I follow the rules, and I’m being punished for what someone else did in my country ten years ago.’ It’s a tough spot to be in.
The score definitely adds pressure.
How to Use the Dodger Score Data
Even if it’s controversial, the data is useful for us as viewers.
If you are watching the Olympics and see a high Dodger Score, you might pay a little closer attention to their performance.
Is their time just a bit too perfect? Is their lift just a bit too smooth? It’s a fun way to add a layer of scrutiny to the games.
If you are into sports betting or analyzing the odds, checking these scores might give you a different perspective on who to watch or who to avoid.
You can find more about how these odds are calculated .
Here’s the interesting part.
The Verdict
Look, the Dodger Score is a double-edged sword.
It’s an attempt to be transparent in a sport that has been riddled with secrecy for decades.
But it fails to account for individual character and current behavior.
It’s a tool that helps us ask the right questions, but it shouldn’t be used to judge athletes before they even step on the track.
Let’s just watch the events and hope the athletes are clean.
If you want to keep up with all the latest news from Paris, is a great place to start.
So, that’s the Dodger Score in a nutshell. Oddly enough,
Weird, controversial, and definitely not going away anytime soon.
What do you think? Should we be rating athletes like this? Let me know in the comments.
One last thing, if you want to see how other sports are scoring this Olympics, definitely check out our guide on and .
It’s a whole ecosystem of data now.
Update: We just added a new section breaking down the lowest scores, which actually tells us a lot about where the sport is actually clean.
Check it out at .
Image source: pexels.com
Now think about that for a second.
Image source credit: pexels.com