Seems that some Europeans are ticked off that their countries weren't higher up the table.
The Young European Federalists (EU-funded Brussels-based organisation) says a single European team would lead the medals table and help people to feel more like European citizens.
It also said that a United Europe team would help to "combat nationalism that is always very fast in spreading on these sporting occasions”.
[QUOTE=Claire ex-ax;241397]The Young European Federalists (EU-funded Brussels-based organisation) says a single European team would lead the medals table and help people to feel more like European citizens.
[QUOTE]
But would they allow the Irish to vote on it? Or any country to vote on it, for that matter??
Claire, I think you're absolutely right. This is the major problem with Olympics and humanity is that we still define ourselves based on things that make us different: nationalities, skin color, culture, religion, language, etc...
Until people finally learn to embrace "humanity," these events will be nothing more than nationalistic ego boosters (no matter who is involved or what kind of "lipstick they put on the pig"). Athletes need to compete for the sake of sport and not for the nationalistic pride.
"I just kept it in my head that my Dear General's eyes would be watching over me, and that encouraged me to lift this weight," she said, referring to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il who is invariably called "Dear Leader" or "Dear General" by his people.
"I am overjoyed by the fact that I have brought great joy to our Dear Leader. This is the biggest present for the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the republic."
AFP: NKorean weightlifter: Dear Leader, that's a weight off my mind
Fielding a Europe team would be incredibly silly unless you amend the rules. It would mean a lot less athletes participating and would be solely about winning the total medals.
Not a chance of that happening and rightly so.
I don't really see anything wrong with having national, regional, local pride... As long as it isn't taken to extremes and used politically.
Personally, I've never really felt the country pride thing, I could compete for one country or the next and it wouldn't ruffle me one bit and I've always traded all my gear for others but I can see how other people feel differently.
I would say Ethiopia. They WON 4 events, while Canada won 3. The silvers and bronzes just meant that Canada came close to winning, but didn't. The rankings should be based on how many EVENTS a county has WON, not how many they ALMOST won.
But Canada did exceed expectations (I'm Canadian and a lot of us expected only 15 medals, tops... many even think we won't do as well as we did in Athens when we got 12), so it was a good olympics for Canada regardless.
Last edited by Eddy Mundo; 25-08-2008 at 02:09 PM.
BTW, on yahoo front page today
36 facts about the Olympic medal count - Fourth-Place Medal - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports