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aka Dave
Joined: 02 May 2008
Location: Down by the river
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 Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:49 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, but we don't take children, and put them in sports prison at the age of 5 and work them to death until they compete. 95 percent of our athletes are collegiate atheletes, not professionals. In any sense of the term, the Chinese athletes are pros.
The best American male athletes channel into 3 sports: baseball, basketball, and football. That's where the money is.
Medal counts are arbitrary. Why, exactly, are golds exponentially more valuable than silvers and bronze? If so, why even award the silver and bronze?
Personally, I think the medal counts should be trashed and you watch the games as events.
But if you're gonna post a medal count, hell yes use the method that makes your country on top. Why *wouldn't* you do this, it's not like it means anything.
On edit: America is a democracy, and we treat all our medal winners equally, unlike aristocratic Europe or communist China, so God Bless America, apple pie, and Superman.
Last edited by aka Dave on Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:03 am; edited 1 time in total |
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MANDRL
Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:53 am Post subject: |
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| aka Dave wrote: |
Yeah, but we don't take children, and put them in sports prison at the age of 5 and work them to death until they compete. 95 percent of our athletes are collegiate atheletes, not professionals. In any sense of the term, the Chinese athletes are pros.
The best American male athletes channel into 3 sports: baseball, basketball, and football. That's where the money is.
Medal counts are arbitrary. Why, exactly, are golds exponetially more valuable than silvers and bronze? If so, why even award the silver and bronze?
Personally, I think the medal counts should be trashed and you watch the games as events.
But if you're gonna post a medal count, hell yes use the method that makes your country on top. Why *wouldn't* you do this, it's not like it means anything. |
Spot on, all of it. |
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ReeseDog
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Location: Classified
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:58 am Post subject: |
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| MANDRL wrote: |
| aka Dave wrote: |
Yeah, but we don't take children, and put them in sports prison at the age of 5 and work them to death until they compete. 95 percent of our athletes are collegiate atheletes, not professionals. In any sense of the term, the Chinese athletes are pros.
The best American male athletes channel into 3 sports: baseball, basketball, and football. That's where the money is.
Medal counts are arbitrary. Why, exactly, are golds exponetially more valuable than silvers and bronze? If so, why even award the silver and bronze?
Personally, I think the medal counts should be trashed and you watch the games as events.
But if you're gonna post a medal count, hell yes use the method that makes your country on top. Why *wouldn't* you do this, it's not like it means anything. |
Spot on, all of it. |
An excellent point was brought up somewhere else on this forum and bears repeating: Redirection is an ugly thing. To begin howling about Americans in order to focus attention away from your own medal count is pretty sad. If you're not Chinese, you don't get to talk any shit at all. Period. |
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uberscheisse
Joined: 02 Dec 2003
Location: japan is better than korea.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:11 am Post subject: |
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| main thing is, why are so many olympic athletes women, even when they walk into the competition with a *beep* and 2 *beep*? |
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oskinny1
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Location: Right behind you!
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ReeseDog
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Location: Classified
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:13 am Post subject: |
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What a load of kimchi! |
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cheeseface
Joined: 13 Jan 2008
Location: Ssyangnyeon Shi
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: |
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Wow, really showing the Olympic spirit there.......  |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:41 am Post subject: |
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| aka Dave wrote: |
Yeah, but we don't take children, and put them in sports prison at the age of 5 and work them to death until they compete. 95 percent of our athletes are collegiate atheletes, not professionals. In any sense of the term, the Chinese athletes are pros.
The best American male athletes channel into 3 sports: baseball, basketball, and football. That's where the money is.
Medal counts are arbitrary. Why, exactly, are golds exponentially more valuable than silvers and bronze? If so, why even award the silver and bronze?
Personally, I think the medal counts should be trashed and you watch the games as events.
But if you're gonna post a medal count, hell yes use the method that makes your country on top. Why *wouldn't* you do this, it's not like it means anything.
On edit: America is a democracy, and we treat all our medal winners equally, unlike aristocratic Europe or communist China, so God Bless America, apple pie, and Superman. |
Yes, medal counts aren't important. That is, suddenly, when you're no longer winning them.
No one said gold medals are worth exponentially more than silvers or bronzes, but at the same time there's no use denying they're worth more. Or would you like to swap Michael Phelps's 8 gold medals for 8 of our bronzes?  |
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aka Dave
Joined: 02 May 2008
Location: Down by the river
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:26 am Post subject: |
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Well, I didn't say winning medals wasn't important. I said how you "rate" the medal count was arbitrary.
You can choose overall medals or golds. The New York times and other American newspapers use the former. Is some "Olympic boss" gonna swoop down and say "You can't do this, the golds determine the medal count."
I mean, who cares. I view the Olympics as entertainment, and I enjoy it when Americans win in Sports that I care about. That would be swiming, track, boxing, tennis, baseball, soccer, and so on.
You know, *real sports*. The sports you actually watch when it's not the olympics.
If some Chinese guys wins in badminton or sailing or "air gun" over an American. Meh, tough luck.
If they beat us in basketball or a lot of track events, that would suck. Not to say I'm not rooting for the badminton dude. That's just not a real sport in my opinion.
Why not include croquet, you do that at picnics too. And trampoline? What the heck is that? They made a gold medal sport out of trampoline?
It's just entertainment, anyway, which is subjective. If you think badminton and judo are compelling sports, have at it.
I wasn't disappointed in our gold count, I was dissappointed our guy dropped the baton in the relay. That's one of my favorite events.
Anyway, the New York Times says the USA was number one in the medal count. That's enough for me! We're number one! We're number one! |
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newteacher
Joined: 31 May 2007
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Lunar Groove Gardener
Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Location: 1987 Subaru
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:07 am Post subject: |
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It seems to me that the INDIVIDUAL or TEAM that runs the race, sets the record etc. is the honoree (although Nazis will generally disagree).
Vapid nationalism really sucks the wind out of any truly forward thinking, leaving nothing in its wake but negativity.
I'm nearly convinced that the average intellectual and emotional maturity on this board is equal to that of a twelve year old (potato). |
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RJjr
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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| In my opinion, the Chinese had the best Olympics since they won the most gold medals by a large margin. But I'm still happy with the American athletes getting the most medals overall. The athletes are competing at a high level and it's no shame to get silver or bronze, especially if the second or third place athlete's country sweeps gold/silver/bronze like China, USA, Jamaica, and perhaps some other countries did in a few events. |
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Drunken Monkey
Joined: 17 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Slight correction to the medal table
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23 United States
18 Great Britain
12 Austraila
11 South Korea
8 Michael Phelps
3 Canada
3 New Zealand
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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We could make the count a little more fair. 3 points for a gold, 2 for silver, one for bronze.
China - 223 Points
USA - 220 Points
Oooh, close one! |
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aka Dave
Joined: 02 May 2008
Location: Down by the river
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