Way to go USA!!! 110 medals. Outstanding showing and one to be proud of.

[trumad]

Swimming---near perfect--- Track---so not so perfect but we won a few including the decathlon. Basketball, volleyball, water polo--- excellent. There were some upsets--- womens softball got nicked, but hey, congrats to Japan on that one.

And yes---as reluctant as I am to offer it, I must give props to the Chinese for a job well done.

[thewiseguy]

1. Doing medal counts is silly. China dominated the gold medals.

[trumad]

3. No you're fucking silly

Good for China but this post wasn't about China.... it was about the USA----but knuckleheads like you can't help but yourselves when it comes to bashing our athletes and the country they compete for.

As far as medals go----we took that title wouldn't ya say?

[Upton]

4. Nope not under this system

Gold Medals-5 points
Silver Medals-3 points
Bronze Medals-2 points

Under this system the US has:

Gold-36=180 points
Silver=38=114 points
Bronze-36=72 points

Total-366

China

Gold-51=255 points
Silver-21=63 points
Bronze-28=56 points

Total-374

You can stop waving the flag now. Good performance by the US but only good enough for second place.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/960978/olympicsgold_or_overall_medals_determine.html?cat=14

[trumad]

5. Really---- and what international sports organization designed this errr system?

Was it the Olympic committee??

Nahhh, it's not quite what you think....

A blogger named Michael Lunchies made this shit up. And what qualifies Mike to develop this sophisticated system?

Here's his bio:

Michael Luchies owns a sports collectible business Stubs4Sale.com, is a rabid Detroit sports fan and loves investing. Stubs4sale.com sells sports ticket stubs, and gives appraisals and advice to collectors.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/226765/michael_luchies.html

So, in order for you to continue your silly USA athlete bashing, you find some knucklehead sports collector who pulled some numbers out of his ass?????

That's it??? That's your convincing argument that the total medal count doesn't count.

What a moran.

[Upton]

10. You're being ridiculous

by using the overall medal count as a measure of success, you're giving the bronze and silver medals the same weight as a gold, which is absurd. You discount the formula only because the US finishes second. Here is another formula I have seen proposed:

Gold-3 points
Silver-2 points
Bronze-1 point

China

Golds-51=153 points
Silver-21=42
Bronze-28=28

Total=223

US

Gold-36=108
Silver-38=76
Bronze-36=36

Total=220

US still finishes second. Face it, the USA had a decent Olympics but, as often happens, the host nation exceeded expectations. China are world champions.

[trumad]

12. Again---more numbers pulled out of your ass

and I'm being ridiculous? Is this how you debate on other matters? You just make shit up?

It's like debating a 3 year old.

[thewiseguy]

20. Are you a fucking lunatic?

You started this flamewar with your fucking arrogant bs. Why dont you fucking calm down and then we talk.

As I said before, only in your stupid system does a gold medal equal a silver or a bronze!

[BulletproofLandshark]

6. The IOC doesn't track medal counts.

That scoring system is as asinine and convoluted as the BCS rankings. And just why are you so anxious to throw the U.S. Olympic team under the bus anyway? Your "system" is bullshit, and I'll wave the flag as much as I damned well please.

[Goblinmonger]

11. How about this system

There is no reason why a gold is worth 2 points more than a silver when a silver is only worth one more point than a bronze. If we drop the gold down one point to a 4, that gives the following:

US
Gold=144
Silver=114
Bronze=72
Total=330

China
Gold=204
Silver=63
Bronze=56
Total=323

We win, bitches.

It's just a numbers game. I can find all kinds of "scoring systems" that have whomever you want out front. It doesn't take a statistical genius to figure that out.

The point is, who gives a flying shit. Even if I agree with this douche and we took "second" at the olympics, that's pretty goddamned good out of 180+ nations. Is our collective dick somehow smaller because China got more gold medals than we did? Seeing what I have about the way China treats their competitors, they can take their 51 gold medals and go fuck themselves. When one of the sychronized swimming team members asks for a weekend off (and gets shit for it) because she hasn't been allowed to see her family in 12 FUCKING YEARS, there is something wrong. When you take up and coming gymnasts and put them in a private school when they are 3 and don't let them see their families for years on end, something is wrong. But hey, come up with a system of counting that shows THAT kind of treatment of competitors is something to look up to. Go ahead. Hope you can sleep at night.

[trumad]

13. Dude is just making up shit to enhance his anti-American bullshit.

[thewiseguy]

19. Man STFU already with this "Anti-American" BS of yours

China should top the standings. Only in your stupid system does a gold medal equal a silver or a bronze!

[trumad]

21. I don't have a system.

The dumbass up above who pulled one out of his ass does and you seem to be agreeing with it. You saying over and over that China should top the standings ain't gonna make it happen. I never said a gold equals a silver or a bronze, now did I.

See that's why I hate debating mental midgets like yourself....you guy's always go to the well of make believe when backed into the corner....another words you simply make up shit to try and win the day.

You're as big a dumbass as the dude above.

[Upton]

22. You don't?

Your system seems to be comprised of insulting anyone who isn't thumping their chest and waving the flag all while wearing red white and blue blinders.

In light of the disagreement, I offered two formulas for determining the actual Olympic champion. It just so happens that under both systems the US finished second. Certainly it's nothing to be ashamed of, the Olympic team can be given an A for effort.

[cboy4]

9. Oh why don't they just do away with the silver and bronze if

they don't count.

I will say the Chinese know how to play ping pong.

Too bad they cheated in gymnastics.

[hughee99]

2. This was an interesting article

and has some good insights (IMHO) into what may be the declining results of the gold count for the US in future olympics.

In a nutshell, in the US, athletes are allowed to choose their sport. The result is that many "olympic quality" athletes end up playing football, basketball, etc... (this is also the case in some other countries as well particularly with soccer. In China, athletes are identified at an early age and put into training for a selected sport that they presume they'll develop the body type for. China is assigning people at a very young age to train specifically to win golds in shooting, archery, trampoline, and synchronized swimming. In the US and other countries, top athletes allowed to pick their own sports tend not to go into these less glamorous sports.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=dw-medalcount082208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[pnwmom]

7. And you're not even factoring in relative population size.

The U.S. did extremely well, as usual.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. It will be very difficult to match the team performances

Or even come close. In fact, I'll make a very easy early prediction for London 2012: NBC will frequently mention the lesser results of USA teams compared to 2008. I can't believe we made the gold medal round in almost every major team sport, with all the parity.

As far as the medal count, I distinctly remember watching the Soviet Union haul in the '70s and '80s, fruitlessly rooting for the USA in total medals. I can't recall pretending only golds mattered, or any type of inane point allotment.

The Olympics needs live track and field. That was the only disappointment of Beijing. I was dodging news reports all day. London will be only 5 hours ahead of Eastern USA so that should allow afternoon live coverage and delays that aren't absurd.

I hate it when every Olympiad ends. I'm watching the closing minutes of NBC's coverage right now. I'm not a big Costas fan but his summation finale was superb, as always.

[Goblinmonger]

15. Track and Field

Even within T&F, I can't believe how little was spent on Field events. I saw a longer amount of time spent on a single mountain bike race than I did all field events combined. Same with the marathon. I realize it is a long race, but should the coverage of the marathon eclipse the combined time for all field events?

[hughee99]

17. I watched an hour of olympic walking

and saw 10 minutes of shot put and no javelin or hammer. Maybe it was just because of the time I happened to tune in, but (no offense to walking fans) do we really need an hour of watching a bunch of people walk around? I can see that out my window at work and at home.

[Awsi Dooger]

18. NBC has diminished Field events more and more every cycle

Right now it's absurd. Two nights ago I was watching the men's 5000 meters on latenight coverage and smack in the middle of the race they break away for a 2-minute highlight package of the women's high jump.

Same thing with the javelin, dumped in the latenight block like an excuse to fill 2 minutes. That was an exciting event with many long throws including an Olympic record for the 2-time gold medalist but NBC acts like it doesn't deserve anything. I'm sure I missed some field events while watching other channels like CNBC during latenight.

I can't believe how it's evolved. In '88 NBC telecast the Summer Olympics taking over for ABC and the emphasis was similar to ABC's, plenty of boxing and field events. I have 12 VCR tapes of Seoul and I've watched them to verify what NBC was showing.

In '92 I was in Barcelona and obviously that meant I didn't see NBC at all. In '96 I was in Atlanta but I got to see plenty of NBC's telecasts and somehow they had all but abandoned boxing and field events. I think I read they were concerned about declining ratings so they tailored the emphasis to sports that rate highest with the prime demographics.

The reason you saw both marathons is they were held in the morning to avoid the heat. That meant it coincided with prime time in the East Coast.

How many people know the name of the decathlon winner? ABC made Bruce Jenner famous. Bryan Clay might as well have been named employee of the month at Carl's Jr. He got almost nothing, for that accomplishment. The guy led by almost 500 points heading to the final event, which was remarkable but NBC basically didn't care.

[Forkboy]

14. I don't what's scarier in this thread, the flag wavers or the flag trashers.

All of you need to be smacked on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. :P

[Redbear]

16. Medal counts by nation are traditional, but I don't like them.

It's a play to nationalism when the individual and team efforts are what is important.


Even without that, it is impossible to adequately gauge medal value.

Should a gold medal in jumping on a trampoline be as valuable as a team gold in soccer or basketball?

Are medals in judged sports the same value as those in non-judged?

Should medals in sports not many people play be worth more or less than the ones many people participate in?