china has their homeland advantage aswel..
USA
China
Russia
Others
china has their homeland advantage aswel..
Why does it even matter?!
The Olympics is not about which country received the most medals- it's about bringing the world together under one roof to compete in the biggest sporting event in the world - for anyone participating- regardless of where you are from- it is the highest achievement in sports on a personal and global level.
Let's just keep it that way and applaud the sportswomen and men participating, especially those from less developed countries, and appreciate it for what it symbolizes.
Well, sort of. The Olympics is all about elite sportsmen and women striving to do their best and win. It's the competitiveness with themselves and others that drive them, so why shouldn't that be extended to the representative nations? China have certainly come a long way very quickly though - I think I read they won their first gold medal in possibly the 80 or 84 games? They've certainly implemented a program that is producing world class athletes in a wide range of sports.
I'll certainly be impressed with the efforts on display, but I'll automatically be cheering on any Brit who is competing above any other nationalities, and I suspect it's the same for other nationalities too. So long as we realise it doesn't change very much in the real world if China win 40 gold medals and the US 39 or vice versa.Let's just keep it that way and applaud the sportswomen and men participating, especially those from less developed countries, and appreciate it for what it symbolizes.
Australia should be a model to many countries including Canada (my own) who clearly are fighting and winning above their weight class. They have invested heavily in sports and achieved some remarkable success including soccer and the World Cup.
I agree that equating China's population to medals is not a useful comparison for the reasons cited by others.
Zimbabwe's athletes were served a crushing setback when Mugabe was turned away at HK airport. But at least Bush will be there, much to the joy of the US athletes. Brown will not be there for the opening ceremony, much to the disappointment of the entire nation.
isn't it the case as to who has the most efficient drug-test resistant performance enhancers who will ultimately be the most successful nation?
heard russia has 7 top atheletes suspended for taking LSD and dope before the games !!!
perhaps i'm just being sceptical ... still i remember the winter olympics and that mad raving british bloke Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards. Now im sure he was on something even it was a nice cup of hot bovril!!
still in the spirit of the olympiam dream i'm sure the American 1500 metre team will not let us down :
1) the double world champion for Kenya Bernard Lagat,
2) mexican born Leonel Manzano
3) Lastly the recently elected flag bearer for the opening ceremony none other than the world famous Lopez Lomong .. ironically a refugee from Sudan .. nice touch for flag bearer that one
all recently initiated US citizens
Last edited by clip_my_wings; 07-08-2008 at 06:21 PM.