Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nautilus]

[Gopher]

Interesting how you can look at the pattern the present Olympics presents and conclude the Americans are "losers."

In any case, the data the other thread listed emerged not from a nationalist American website but apparently the official Olympics website. It lists all nations' historical performance.


Austria and Chile, for example.

And here is China.

So it is not the United States "sticking up a table," as you seem to believe.

[nautilus]

[shifter2009]

[Beej]

Real Medal count. USA still wins.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-REAL-Olympic-medal-count?urn=oly,101537

The REAL Olympic medal count
By Chris Chase


Look, I don't know much about gymnastics, but I do know that landing a vault on two feet is better than landing one on two knees. Olympic gymnastics judges evidently disagree with me, as they awarded China's Cheng Fei a bronze medal yesterday even after she fell on her vault landing. American Alicia Sacramone finished fourth despite, you know, not falling.

And today, 12-year old 16-year old Chinese gymnast He Kexin won gold over Nastia Liukin based on an obscure tiebreaking rule. The two received the same score from the judges, but He won a tiebreak because an Australian judge apparently was watching a different competition.

Every judging break seems to have gone China's way during these Olympics. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, I just think that judges are humans who are influenced by big names, fans and other external factors. Oh, and they're also terrible. Judged events will always be viewed with skepticism by those who lose for this reason, particularly those who lose to a member of the home delegation. (Think Roy Jones Jr. at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.)

It is because of this skewed inconsistency that Fourth-Place Medal introduces The Real 2008 Medal Count. Our medal count will tally medals won in sports decided on the field of play, not by a judge in a teal blazer.

The judged Olympic events we will ignore for our tally are: boxing, diving, equestrian, gymnastics, judo, taekwondo, trampoline and wrestling. We debated whether to include boxing, wrestling and the martial arts in the list, as they can be decided by competitors. However, because the judging is prone to error and shenaningans, we will include it.

The Real 2008 Medal Count

China: 22 gold; 11 silver; 11 bronze

United States: 21 gold; 19 silver; 21 bronze

As you can see, in the events where medals are determined by competitors rather than judges, the gold medal gap between China and the U.S. is greatly narrowed, and the total medal count is an American runaway. Counting the judged events, China has a commanding lead in golds. Hmmm... Nope, nothing fishy about that!

I think a basketball gold medal or in track and field is far better than one in ping pong or shooting.

[ReeseDog]

Never looked at it like that. Good post, Beej.

[nautilus]

Even if I agree with Beej that Nastia Lukin was the recipient of an wrongful decision, as was Alicia sacramone ( 2 medals), he still has to account for about 22 Golds that China leads the US by.The vast majority of judges are not Chinese, remember.

I was quite happy with the idea of the US being No.1 again- until I noticed how badly they take being 2nd.

[Privateer]

[Privateer]

[poet13]

I think it's politics and money. China spent what, 22 billion or something on these games? They havbe to get something back.

I watched the mens high bar yesterday. The Chinese guy did ok, one of his release moves was dead simple, he lost momentum on his catches, and he stumbled on his dismount. 16.20.

The American fellow rocked. He had more and more difficult release moves, and he didn't lose his momentum on the catch. He did also stumble on his dismount. When he finished, he knew he had won. So did everyone else. He got 15.175.

I don't know if there ever will be a way to objectively determine inherently subjective events, but until they do, the medal awards in this part of the Olympics will be a joke.

[flakfizer]

Does the OP have a point? I think Korea was third in medal standing when they hosted the games. The home team always does better than they usually do. Come back in 2 years (or did you just mean summer Olympics) and ask this question.

As for the medal standings, I agree with another poster that it is silly to go only by golds. Silver medals are then meaningless except in breaking ties in which two nations have the same gold tally. On the other hand, there is no way two bronzes are better than one gold. It sould be weighted. Each gold is worth 3, each silver 2, and each bronze 1. In this case, China is running away with these Olympics. However, it's only the summer Olympics, and it's just these particular Olympics which China happens to be hosting. I really don't see what the OP's point is.

[crescent]

There was a Discovery Channel Documentary about China's drive for Olympic gold a few weeks ago..
The government increased the amount of spotters in every area of sport to extract as much talent as possible.

Despite having little modern training technology, China relied on finding the best at the youngest age and training them longer and harder.

The athletes themselves treat sport as a battle. They see themselves as warriors and they even have a military type oath or credo that they publicly recite in order to build up their mental side.

[bassexpander]

Hacker uncovers more proof that Chinese gymnastics star is underaged:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407803,00.html

[shifter2009]

[nautilus]