From the Exploring Data website - http://curriculum.qed.qld.gov.au/kla/eda/
© Education Queensland, 1997

Olympic Gold Medal Performances

The modern Olympic Games are a modified revival of the Greek Olympian Games that came to be largely through the efforts of the French sportsman and educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The Games are an international athletic competition that has been held at a different site every four years since their inauguration in 1896, with occasional interruptions in the times of world wars.

The data for the gold medal performances in long jump, high jump, discus throw are given below (in inches). Year is coded to be zero in 1900.

1. Plot the data for each event on a separate scattergram.

2. Describe the shape of the distribution. Does the relationship between year and performance appear to be linear?

3. Predict the Olympic performance for the Sydney 2000 games.