Interesting how in the US the Olympic medal table is calculated by total number of medals won rather than by number of golds. Of course when you see that by opting for the former rather than the latter the United States comes out on top beating China by 2 medals it all becomes clear.
Everyone else, including the Official Website of the 2008 Games ranks nations by gold medals won, then silver and bronze, which given their relative import makes sense. Of course perhaps its just too traumatic for the american psyche to be knocked off the top spot by its great economic and Communist rival. I could make a tenuous link to hegemonic decline but as I'm not giving a Pol Sci lecture I won't :-)
(New York Times Medal Table)
http://2008games.nytimes.com/olympics/medals.asp
(Official Medal Table)
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml
Naturally I prefer the official table as it puts team GB in 3rd rather than 4th! Either way we are still ahead of the Ozzies who are displaying the rather British characteristic of whingeing!http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/olympicgames.aquatics.britainaustralia
4 comments:
Mate, I didn't know you could sing so well; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-T3DV1WsNU
or is it just your twin? :-)
Apparently the Ozzies rank it by medal according to population which makes them, erm, number 1. The IOC itself disapproves of medal counts, suggesting that individual results only should be reported. But I agree with you, which ever way they spin it, they can't deny that we simply kick ass.
Damn I thought no-one would work it out :-)
My first BBC Olympics. Good things: no commercials, which make watching the Games in America unbearable. And commentary was in English, as my last few Games have been in Slovenian and Portuguese. Bad things: WHY oh WHY do English commentators slag off people for silver medals?! Or Bronze?! Why even mention "you didn't get the gold, you loser, what happened"? (I paraphrase here.) Get over it, commentating bastards, stop making the poor kids cry, and be proud that you've got athletes (and money) to be competitive in world sport. (And of course each nation says they 'won' the medal count. It should probably be based on population, money invested in sport, background of athletes, support from society, etc etc but for God's sake just enjoy the bloody Games!)
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