| Australia and Soth Kore lead the Medals table! | |
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| Aug 13, 2008 07:00 |   |
 | Actually Australia and S Korea are at the top of the medal table. It's no good just counting the raw number of medals won, you must divide by the population. Surely it is no great effort for the USA to beat Australia, it has more than 10 times the population! And China has 60 times more people than Australia. So of course it should win more medals as it has more to choose from!! But lets also ask why Australia is so successful. It is because it has depth of sports involvement. In most sports which Australia wins medals there are many people involved in the sport at all levels. (and 5 of our top 6 sports are not even included the Olympics!!). This is not true in China which has spent vast sums on an elite few. I have often argued that China (especially as it is a "people's" country should have spent the money on developing grass root sports around the country for the health and wellbeing of the whole population, rather than the showcase event for elite professional athletes. |
| Aug 13, 2008 07:48 | #1 |
| I agree Paul but doubt very much if you will get much agreement on this site. How do you get Saturday afternoon sport at school level going here? Dodger. |
| Aug 13, 2008 10:01 | #2 |
| No chance of starting Saturday afternoon sports for kids in China, they are all too busy doing extra English, maths, computers, or learning the piano. There is a general attitude of quantity over quality or not understanding the concept of working smarter not harder. So there is little chance for grass root sports as we know it in Aus or the US (Britain is a bit slack in this area). China will soon have a bigger problem with overweight kids than western countries. |
| Aug 13, 2008 12:42 | #3 |
| Heh, I just said the same to my wife. Finland has only one gold and one bronze, but here are only about 5 million people, so didided by the population Finland would rise quite high. I think in China is "westernisation" going on, yes. More computers and internet and less sports. Carlos |
| Aug 13, 2008 18:59 | #4 |
| I took the same approach with my students when they were gloating recently over the number of medals won by China vs those won by Canada ( which has zero as of this writing ). I argued that the total number of medals is not the true measure, and that we should focus instead on the MPP, which is Medal Count / Population, or Medals Per Person. If China should finish with roughly 80 medals ( of any color ), then Canada needs to win only 2, since China has 40 times the population haha. My students are in first year university, and so the concept of MPP started a rollicking debate haha. Even the shyer, quieter ones were digging for the right words so that they could join the discussion. |
| Aug 13, 2008 21:40 | #5 |
| " In most sports which Australia wins medals there are many people involved in the sport at all levels. (and 5 of our top 6 sports are not even included the Olympics!!). " Maybe, you need to write a letter to IOC, asking why Australia's 5 or 6 top sports are not included in the Olympics, Paul. China has many top sports, such as table tennis, badminton, diving, weight lifting and gymnastics and these are included in the Olympic Games. So China can win more gold medals. It is the same to US and Australia. US's top sports are basketball, swimming and track and field. Though they are ranking as No.2, they will exceed China very soon because track and field hasn't commenced. As for Australia, swimming might be the top sport that has been included in the Olympics. Jones has already won a gold medal. On the other hand, IOC has set many rules against China. To reduce China's advantages of its top sports, IOC has cancelled Men and Women's Double table tennis. By the way, the table tennis ball becomes bigger than before (This has been adopted for a long time). Why? China is too strong. As for diving and women's weight lifting, they have limited the number of Chinese athletes. As for badminton, IOC has changed the rules. Why doesn't it require Phelps to attend fewer swimming competitions? He has already won 5 gold medals. Before the match, he said that he planed to win 8 gold medals. The westerners and the oriental people are different. To some extent, the oriental people are more flexible so that they play such as table tennis, badminton and diving very well. And westerners are stronger so that they play tennis and soccer very well. So there is no fairness in the Olympics (just my view). |
| Aug 14, 2008 03:25 | #6 |
| I have some answers Jimmy. Just some. In Australia we have several types of 'football': Rugby League, Rugby Union, and Australian Rules Football, as well as real football. These are the main professional sports for men in winter. In summer the sport is cricket. A very popular sport with girls is netball ( a forerunner to basketball). Of course surfing is also a major activity with the young. Most weekends kids participate in at least two sports and try to squeeze in a little homework at some point! (Though it is true most students of Chinese origin are still more likely to study for 20 hours a day). These sports have not been included in the Olympics because they are not truly world sports (how did that nonsense called synchronised swimming manage to get in????). I don't think the weightlifting rule is aimed at the Chinese...and I certainly hope it isn't. I too was wondering why the weightlifting world body has this rule. is it new? Does it apply to other competitions? Yes, I have concerns about one swimmer being allowed to comptee in so many events like Phelps does. Maybe it is simply that swimming has too many events! It is true that different sports suit different physiques so some ethnic groups have advantages in some. Look at the Ethiopians etc in long distance running. Most US sprinters are black but there are no black US swimmers (and few from elsewhere). Many Chinese are smaller and so perhaps have an advantage in gymnastics and diving, but maybe it is also cultural - they are less confrontational sports. Unfair? Not really, just create a multi-ethnic multicultural society like Australia - then you can have sportsmen and women for all events!! |
| Aug 14, 2008 15:44 | #7 |
| APAULT...just wanted to correct you on one thing: we do have a black swimmer who won a gold medal along with Phelps in the 4x100 freestyle relay. I forget his name now, but he posted a good ttime on his leg of the relay. |
| Aug 14, 2008 20:06 | #8 |
| Jimmy, I think you’ll find that there are limits on how many athletes a country can enter on all events. The 1500 meter swim has a limit of two. If a country has the best three in the world the third one dips out. So its not an IOC plot. Cheers, Dodge |
| Aug 14, 2008 21:15 | #9 |
| Paul, weight lifting is China's strength. At Sydney and Athens Olympics, China won 10 gold medals in all. As for women, 4 gold medals in Sydney and 3 gold medals in Athens. This time, 6 gold medals and 1 silver medal. In total, there are 15 gold medals and China has won 6. No wonder a German media said that China was invincible and the reason why they didn't win all gold medals was that they could attend more games (the limitation to the number of athletes---6 men and 4 women). "Unfair? Not really, just create a multi-ethnic multicultural society like Australia - then you can have sportsmen and women for all events!!" Well, if it is unfair, there is no need for us to debate who is No.1 at gold table. As long as you have enough sportsmen and women to play all events. |
| Aug 14, 2008 23:25 | #10 |
| Hey Jimmy, my comment was 'tongue in cheek'. - a small challenge but a joke at the same time. But I still ask the question: where are the weightlifting clubs for young people to join, where are the hockey fields and clubs for people to join, where are the beach volley ball courts, where are the gymnastics clubs. ....and so on? Tell me so I can encourage my students to attend them. Most people are lucky to find a small park just to relax in. China has produced some elite athletes on government money..choosing form 1.5 billion people. Most Australians finance their own sport, sport, only a few receive government funding and most sports demand that clubs have members and teams from all ages or they cannot affiliate to the sports association. Because of this most sports are strong at the grass roots level, they are not just sports for an elite plucked form infant school and trained non-stop in their sport. . What does it prove for China to get to the top of the medal table based on elitism...... surely a peoples' republic should concentrate on grass roots sports development first, for the good of the majority rather than national glory. Oh, such idealism. But isn't the Olympics supposed to be based on idealism? Yes, it'ssupposed to be. |
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