Beijing 2008 winner : USA vs China

[demoore]

Hi, Beijing 2008 Olympics are coming...
USA won the 2004 games but with few more gold medals than China, will China do it at home in 2008???

[hullexile]

I didn't know there was an award for top country so how do you win the Olympics?

[demoore]

Well, there is always a ranking during and after the Olympics, the winner is the one who gets the most title (gold medals).

For Athens 2004 the rank was (gold, silver, bronze, total)
- 1. United States 35 39 29 103
- 2. China 32 17 14 63
- 3. Russia 27 27 38 92
- 4. Australia 17 16 16 49
- 5. Japan 16 9 12 37
- 6. Germany 14 16 18 48
- 7. France 11 9 13 33
- 8. Italy 10 11 11 32
- 9. South Korea 9 12 9 30
- 10. Great Britain 9 9 12 30

Note Russia get much more medals than China, but fewer gold ones.

[sp1key]

rather suprising how China caught up that fast at Athens vs USA...

[demoore]

rather suprising how China caught up that fast at Athens vs USA...

Well, for most of the top ten countries, the number of medal is almost related to the population size. Two exceptions:
- China, 1.4 billion => 63 medals
- Australia, 20 million => 49 medals

400 000 Australians to get one medal, 22 millions Chinese to get one.

[Sleuth]

Why is the winner the one with the most golds and not the one with the most medals? Shouldn't you deveop some (arbitrary) points system like 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze and then multiply by medal count and come up with a figure?
And I think this is rather far from the "Greek ideal".

[ede559]

Cos Gold is the winner, Bronze and Silver are just losers so why should it count

[chimo]

Well, for most of the top ten countries, the number of medal is almost related to the population size. Two exceptions:
- China, 1.4 billion => 63 medals
- Australia, 20 million => 49 medals

400 000 Australians to get one medal, 22 millions Chinese to get one.

Well how many of those 1.4 billion people are not too busy working for their next meal?

Besides take away all the sports like swimming and cycling and Australia could only muster up 4 gold medal. Let's face it, how many countries outside of USA/Europe actually swim and cycle as a sport?

[Kevlar]

no doubt, china will dominate!!

[chowfun]

While I'd like to see China dethrone the US, it's wishful thinking for China to win more medals this year. USA will still win this round, but I expect China to keep challenging the US for decades to come.