Medal count is always an issue during the Olympics, but for the 2008 Olympics it has taken on a new twist. Since learning seven years ago that they would host the Olympics this year, the Chinese have made it their mission to earn the most gold medals in 2008 - and their already on track to do it.
Never fear, though! It is predicted that Americans will earn respect by bringing home the most medals in all. In reality, the Chinese have a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the world in terms of medals. Currently they are ranked 13th in total medals (12th in gold medals) with 286 overall while the U.S. is ranked 1st with 2,197 - that's quite a difference and it will take time to raise their ranking.
All that aside, though, I (Josh) will be super happy if the USA basketball team, nicknamed the "Redeem Team", plays as good as they did during their win this morning against the Chinese on their way to striking gold. Now THAT was a fun game to watch!
All that aside, though, I (Josh) will be super happy if the USA basketball team, nicknamed the "Redeem Team", plays as good as they did during their win this morning against the Chinese on their way to striking gold. Now THAT was a fun game to watch!
So as both of us and our families sit comfortably in a condo on the beach (vacation is great!!) we'll be watching and doing our own medal counting. So which is better? More total medals or more gold medals? We'll be waiting to see which kind of bragging rights we'll have when we return home to Xinjiang.
6 Comments:
The reality is that China only joined the Olympics seriously since the 1980s.
Therefore it is natural for them to tally behind in overall standings.
But since they only joined the Olympics seriously since 1980s, it also means that overall standings are meaningless and worthless when comparing Chinese performance against American performance.
Another thing I want to point out is that gold medals is indeed the only tally that counts. If bronze and silver medals are worth as much as gold medals, then no athlete would be disappointed in becoming second place or third place.
Good point...whoever you are.
It makes perfect sense to only count medals from 1980's forward. I might try to do that.
I DO NOT AGREE, however, with your idea that gold medals are all that count. If that were true then why even give out silver and bronze? You're also making assumptions about athletes...some are more than happy to be getting a medal, even if it isn't gold.
Maybe the best way would be to give a weight to the medals? Might be worth a try...
in sports, there's a saying .. "you are as good as your last match".
this by no means to underestimate history, but we should weigh present and future performance more than historical statistics.
i agree with you that silver and bronze counts! But silver should counts after gold, and bronze after silver.
in sport.. people compete to be number one. yes, there are people who compete to better their own record. but we give medals to the fastest, the highest, and the strongest. not to those who "better their own time the most".
so.. really, you do not think that 10 bronzes is better than 9 gold, do you ?
for me, silver and bronze are those medals an athlete picks up on his/her way to get the gold one.
they serve as recognition of hard-work and motivation to do faster, higher, stronger the next time.
GOLD is the ultimate prizes ..given only to the fastest, the highest, the strongest. so, it MUST matters MOST.
If we for example were to allocate points for a gold/silver/bronze, we would have a much fairer result that would take into consideration both the number of medals and their individual weighting!
For example; using a model where bronze equals 1, silver 2 and gold 3 points
at this precise moment, the USA would have;
28, 56, 81 total = 165
whereas PR of China would have;
21, 30, 135 total= 186
This is just the most basic model, I'm not a mathematician and I'm sure some would argue that gold is worth more than 1 point over silver, but as you can see, no matter how you fiddle with the numbers, China is winning.
On a personal note that would also mean that Russia are ahead of the Great Britain, so please ignore everything I’ve just said!
I agree with the point system. but weight of gold, silver and bronze have to reflect more on the reality of sports and less on being politically correct. Gold 3 Silver 2 Bronze 1 is a good option. The weight that the world population and world media put on gold might mean that Gold 5 Silver 3 Bronze 1 is an option closer to the reality and yet not 'belittle' silver and bronze too much. another option closer to reality but harsher would be gold 10, silver 5, bronze 1. that does not mean we don't respect silver and bronze medalist, in my country where there is only one silver in 2008 olympics, the medalist is welcome home like a big hero. it is just that in all sports, it is about getting no 1. be it NBA or Worldcup Soccer. the score should reflect the reality.
we can also refer to other sports like F1 that uses a point system.
I think in sports, the world is NOT a level. western countries own far more resources ($$$) and world class training system compare to most of us 3rd world country. i find it funny that some ppl in USA, who send 1500 delegate to Olympics 2008 whine that China has the world's largest population.
you never see us small tiny countries whine about how poor we are that its very hard for us to get a 25k USD bicycle to compete in some event. we are poor but we are sporting and gracious in defeat.
This is exactly why the IOC doesn't officially support any form of medal rankings!
It's proven that the more money you spend on the sport, the more likely competitors in that sport will qualify for the games and thus the more medals you're likely to win.. and i don't believe that any rankings system could take economic or population factors into consideration!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/everybody-says.html
- This LA times article addressed the matter
Though looking down the medals table today, it really feels like Jamaica is the success story of this olympics.
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