Job Discussion Forums

oprah · Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Posts: 382

I have been back to school for two weeks, and have spent most time on the Olympics. Everyone participated and was interested. Talking about the medals, history, money earned, and the name of the sports in English. Having the students show how to do certain sports, especially syncronized swimming is a riot. Students new words were: bronze, they call it copper. They only count gold medals and not the others, when asked how many medals does China have today they say say only the gold ones.. I thinkyou will find this a great topic for class. I wonder how interested they will be after the fact.. as some students willl not return until September, I wonder if they will still be interested.

The G-stringed Avenger · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:55 am Post subject:

Isn't China doing well! They definitely like their sport, especially when they're successful (just like Australia!) You can always ask them if they think China will top the US in the medal rankings in Beijing 2008, and in what events.

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

True, they only consider the gold medals...

(Checks if Canada has ANY gold so far... Yes, one! Shocked

)

...anyways, they only consdier the Americans as their competitors now. CCTV LOVES to repeat the air rifle victory, with the Chinese man and the American sharing the screen, and the Chinese man winning. Over and Over again. Think they're sending a message?

The G-stringed Avenger · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:33 pm Post subject:

Oh yeah, they're sending a message all right. America and China are rivals and - potentially - enemies too. While that rivalry is for now confined to the sporting arena, it will certainly expand to other areas in the future. You can bet China won't want to play second fiddle to the US in years to come. Any victory over whitey is good for them, I guess.

NateM · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

China Daily, Aug. 23/04, front page, second-to-last paragraph, "Tennis gold a first at Olympics"

Captain Yossarian · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 385 Location: Dongbei

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

I assume that in 1952, it was mainland China that gained a seat...

If this is true, then the article is correct as it stands; and there's no bizarre Taiwan political undertone going on here. (I'm a newbie at 'Sinology': what can I say??)

Thanks, Captain Yossarian, for the correction and new info!

Ludwig · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:50 pm Post subject:

oprah · Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Posts: 382

You are right about the Chinese only acknowledge the GOLD medals. Even though the US has a total number much greater than China, they say US has one more than China, as US has one more GOLD medal than China. Do you think this topic will still be exciting and interesting to the students on September first, after the fact?? I have been saving all the clippings out of the newspaper for teaching classes.

Captain Yossarian · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 385 Location: Dongbei

Even the offical Olympic site ranks countries according to the number of gold medals they have won first and by rank by total number of medals second. In rankings by total China came third, behind the US and Russia.

What I find slightly daunting is the fact that China used these Olympics as a warm-up for Beijing 2008. The average age of their team was under 25. There is simply no question that China will dominate Beijing 2008 and every Olympics thereafter. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration/reintegration of Germany and the later collapse of the USSR I didn't think the domination of the US could ever be challenged. China has gone from 1 gold in 1984 to more than 30 twenty years later. Considering the investment in sports schools, Olympic size pools etc that number will look very small indeed in another 20 years! Even athletics, which China has been weak in, yielded golds in the 10,000m and 110m hurdles this year.

Who can possibly challenge them? A resurgent Russia? I can't see it ever being as successful as the former USSR. India? Sure, their population will soon overtake China's but having won a solitary medal in the last two Olympics I can't see them posing a threat for decades.

Perhaps the EU should enter a united team?!

Captain Yossarian · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 385 Location: Dongbei

On the topic of the Olympics:

Are there any countries that have surprised you with their success/failure this year? How do you feel your country performed?

I think the strongest overperformers this year were Romania - a country that is still significantly poorer than most of the former Eastern bloc.

Australia are always stunning. A population of less than 20 million producing so many medals is remarkable. I think New Zealand had 3 golds too - from a country with less people than most Chinese cities that is pretty good as well.

Japan did very well - though so many of their golds came from Judo.

The big European countries (Germany, France, Britain, Italy) all did well. Britain have recovered very well in 2000 and 2004 from the abysmal Olympics they had in 1996 (1 gold). Considering how quickly Spain has developed over the last 25 years I would probably expect them to have put in a better performance.

Russia had a good total but their number of golds was down from Sydney.

manise · Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 7

Hereunder a few stats taken from" The Australian - Tuesday August 31 2004".

In Atlanta 1966, China finished fourth in Medal tally, Sydney 2000- third, Athens 2004 - second.

In Athens - 32 gold(4 more than in Sydney); 17 silver, 14 bronze - 63 medals in total.

"The game plan emphasises youth and moving beyond traditional fields of strentgh such as table tennis, gymnastics and badminton".

China trains 3200 at national level and 16,000 at provincial and municipal level. In addition there are another 46,000 students at 229 elite sports primary schools. They train from the age of eight onwards.

In Athens, China participated in 26 out of 28 events, excluding equestrian and baseball. It fielded 407 athletes, 126 more than in Sydney.

It was China's youngest team, average age of 23.3 years, compared with 27.1 for the Americans. 80% had not competed in an Olympics before, a force to be reckon by Beijing 2008.

In Athens, China won golds in four events in which it had never previously been placed - the men's hurdles,wrestling,tennis and canoeing.

WOW, WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT. CHINA REPLACING US IN OVERALL MEDAL COUNT IN BEIJING? WHO KNOWS! Laughing

Ludwig · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:32 am Post subject:

I think you should consider the size of the population from which the nation's athletes come. On Sunday 29th, for example, both Sweden and the Netherlands had 4 golds, though the latter has a population of around 15 million and the former only around 8 million! Imagine if Sweden had a population of 1.4 billion to select from!

If you take the current number of Olympic golds and re-order the top 20 by number of people in the population per gold medals, the rankings are somewhat different to say the very least.

The clear leader, by this measure at least, is Australia. Indeed, by this measure Down Under is some 7 times more athletic than the US and a whopping double cheeseburger 30 times more athletic than China.

Rank (by gold medals by size of population):

1. Australia
2. Greece
3. Romania
4. Sweden
5. Hungary
6. Belarus
7. Netherlands
8. Ukraine
9. France
10. Italy
11. South Korea
12. Japan
13. Great Britain
14. Germany
15. United States
16. Russia
17. Canada
18. Poland
19.Turkey
20. China

go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

I like Ludwig's table, being from a small country. New Zealand escaped his rankings because we weren't in the top twenty (24th), but we weren't forgotten by Captain Yossarian.

NZ's population recently cracked the 4 million mark. (We were proud.)Our final totals were 3 gold, two silver. Of particular enjoyment to me as a Kiwi was the NZ first and second in the men's triathlon.

Some of my students looked up New Zealand's medal tally during the Olympics and started paying attention to NZ athletes. Someone else to cheer for, I guess.