does appear to be true. The telling sentence from La Gazzetta Dello Sport in Milan, Italy, reads, "Nonetheless if we compare the number of inhabitants and the results obtained, Bermuda is the best sports country in the world.'' In sporting terms, Bermuda is the mouse that roared.

As Mr. Austin Woods of the Bermuda Olympic Association says, "These results will be a boost for sportsmen and women in Bermuda. This is a sporting island.'' Mr. Woods was delighted by the calculations but not surprised. The point of the Italian newspaper story is to compare population to performance and calculate a result. When that is done, Bermuda comes out on top in Olympic points calculated according to a million inhabitants. It means that Bermuda comes tops in sport per head of population over every other nation. Amusingly, that sports powerhouse Germany comes 22nd, Great Britain comes 41st and the United States 43rd.

Brian Wellman's fifth place in the triple jump gave Bermuda overall gold at Barcelona. It was also considered at the time that Bermuda won the Olympic Games at Montreal when the ill-fated Clarence Hill was awarded a bronze medal, Bermuda's only Olympic medal ever, for heavyweight boxing.

What interests us most about the Barcelona story and its calculations is what might have been and what can be in the future.

Brian Wellman, who produced the result pointed out in the Italian article, continues to get better. And, as Mr. Austin Woods has said, he could have brought home a bronze medal. High jumper Clarance Saunders who made Bermuda so proud with his Commonwealth Games gold medal, was well off his top form at Barcelona. Bermuda's top equestrian, Peter Gray, who brought home a medal from the Pan American Games in the past, was injured just before the Olympics. We all know what Bermuda's sailors can do in international competition and one day they are going to catch the right wind at the Olympics. Every four years Bermuda hopes for medals and one Olympic Games they are going to come because Bermuda has the talent. We think it's just a matter of time and articles like that in La Gazzetta Dello Sport are a tremendous boost.

We have to remember in tiny Bermuda that it is not just a question of the big countries that won the medals having far more people. They also have far better facilities, far more training, extensive top coaching and huge amounts of money to spend on sport, none of which a small island can hope to have.

The important thing is that this kind of story encourages Bermuda's athletes to carry on to future success.