Olympic Medal Tracker
 
United States Total: 90    39     25     26
  China Total: 80                37     24     19
  Russia Total: 56              12     21     23
  Great Britain Total: 52   25     13     14 
  Germany Total: 37         10     16     11

C'mon Team GB!!!  You can't let the Ruskies pass you up like that!  (Although you are SMOKING them in gold.)

Keep medaling! 

the top 7 countries have 433 medals
 
the next 75 countries have 378 medals

Woot Woot

Here's the Official table. That one is out of date and doesn't put Britain 3rd like this one does...

http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/

The spirit of the Olympic games is supposed to bring athletes and nations together.
 
This is less likely to happen if a few countries dominate the medal count.
 
Clearly, the more money spent on training produces better athletes; therefore, the wealthier nations have a huge advantage.
 
The East Germans dominated the medal count for decades (for political reasons) with a known doping program; so cheaters can and do prosper.
 
I'm reading too many stories of judging controversies, losing games on purpose for better seating, bad sportmanship, doping allegations and nationalism to an unhealthy level.

tom1


the top 7 countries have 433 medals
 
the next 75 countries have 378 medals

If that ain't the old 80/20 rule I don't know what is.....

reading up on Juran, Mr. Bapu?
 
 

I dunno, I've enjoyed stuff like the USA ladies winning the 4X100 metres final in a new record time and Kenyan David Rudisha's pioneering 800 metre run.

It undermines the individual dedication that many of these athletes that are just proud to take part to use a cynical and hackneyed argument like the one above against it.

As far as doping goes there are as many free-willed western athletes that cheat as there are those from regimes that have tried to gain prestige from appearing at the games in the past.  The chances of anyone getting away with stuff like that have also been greatly diminished.

Money also plays a part but it doesn't guarantee success.  Britain recently has funded much sport through the national lottery which means it is of no cost to the taxpayer (aside from the huge costs involved in staging a once in a lifetime event like this) and yet it promotes healthier lifestyles for those thousands wanting to emulate the heroes that are show-cased in games like these.  Those results have shown up not only in increased rankings in the medals tables but also in the national interest in fitness as part of the lifestyle, more people go out jogging and riding their bikes and less are clogging up the arteries of the health service.

It's easy to be cynical but it's very hard to devote a great deal of time to achieve the very peak of your individual capability once every 4 years and show the world you truly are the best at what you do.  That is the motivation of the huge majority of the competitors at the Olympics wherever it is staged and regardless of the nation they come from or even the outcome of the events they take part in.

Success promotes success, and because of that there will always be those few that scoff.

I also observe those that do scoff at Olympic sports are often the ones who are quite content to watch pro-players week in, week out hunched in front of a TV on a diet of beer and take-away food and cheer on prima-donnas without questioning the fact that they earn more in a week than most of us will ever accumulate in life-savings.

It sure is a funny old game.

Success promotes success, and because of that there will always be those few that scoff.
 
hey Jon:
If scoffing ever becomes an olympic event I think I would do very well