The Medal Race

[Leeds]

On 8/1/2021 at 4:49 PM, SnideAsides said:

This is, however, the first time the summer games have been first. Given the winter Olympics is definitely more of an "I guess, if we can't do this in searing heat" situation at the best of times, it's going to be interesting to see whether the usual mild boredom is even worse this time around when you also add post-Tokyo fatigue.

Speak for yourself!  I love the winter Olympics and have several friends who couldn't give a flying f*ck about the summer games but are glued to the TV for the winters.

[greyhorse]

9 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

 

And the men's 4x100 and an American woman in Cycling - Omnium also won gold. We have now just passed China for most gold medals as well as everyone else for most medals overall. WOOT indeed!

While of course I'm all about American pride, I never seem to understand the excitement of having the most gold medals or most medals overall.  The US always has the most athletes in the Games - this year it was 613.  China sent 406.  Of course we should have the most medals.  If you're looking at a "per athlete" metric, we lost that race by a huge margin.

[AimingforYoko]

Canada had a great games, but nobody improved more than Japan. In London, they won 7 Golds. In Rio, 12. These games, they won 27. That's a jump and a half. It's obvious investments were made in the sports they thought they could do well in.

[Johannah]

In the past, I rooted pretty much solely for USA wins.  While I'm still extremely proud of the USA team, I am also extremely happy for many of the non-USA winners.  I didn't watch much of the background stories, but the announcers during the events told us when a win or potential win was rare for that person/country and I was happy when they broke that barrier - or even came close, like the lady golfer from India.

I really enjoyed these Olympics, probably due to the great USA showings of some of my favorites: Men's & Women's Golf; Women's Basketball; Women's Volleyball; Women's Softball...

[greyhorse]

3 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Canada had a great games, but nobody improved more than Japan. In London, they won 7 Golds. In Rio, 12. These games, they won 27. That's a jump and a half. It's obvious investments were made in the sports they thought they could do well in.

True, but also they benefited from being able to add on sports: baseball/softball, skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing.

They won gold in Baseball, Softball, three in skateboarding (who knew?), and one in karate. 14 of their medals came in these new added sports.  And as expected, lots of medals in Judo.  I'm a little surprised that they were so successful in Wrestling as well.

I guess it's the hometown bump.  Maybe not as much as expected due to the lack of fans.  But still some nonetheless.  

Would be interested to know if the Japanese kids were allowed to practice on the park and rails before the Olympics started.

Guess this means we can expect a lot of French medals in breakdancing next Olympics?

[legaleagle53]

3 minutes ago, greyhorse said:

True, but also they benefited from being able to add on sports: baseball/softball, skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing.

They won gold in Baseball, Softball, three in skateboarding (who knew?), and one in karate. 14 of their medals came in these new added sports.  And as expected, lots of medals in Judo.  I'm a little surprised that they were so successful in Wrestling as well.

I guess it's the hometown bump.  Maybe not as much as expected due to the lack of fans.  But still some nonetheless.  

Would be interested to know if the Japanese kids were allowed to practice on the park and rails before the Olympics started.

Guess this means we can expect a lot of French medals in breakdancing next Olympics?

I'm surprised they aren't adding petanque for Paris.

[Bill1978]

42 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

I'm surprised they aren't adding petanque for Paris

Pretty certain there is still one spot open for the '5 local sports'  unique to each Olympics. Paris has dropped Baseball/Softball and Karate but has only adding Breaking so I guess anything is possible between now and then.

[xaxat]

22 hours ago, xaxat said:

I don't know what the numbers are, but I like the fact that there are apparently a lot of firsts occurring during these games.

First medal for a woman from country X, first Olympic medal for country X etc.

Ask and you shall receive.

Remembering all of the firsts at the Tokyo Olympics

Three nations have athletes who will be returning with the first Olympic medal of any kind.

 

 

[Leeds]

On 8/8/2021 at 11:48 AM, Johann said:

In the past, I rooted pretty much solely for USA wins. 

That makes me sad.

 

[xaxat]

The American women would rank fourth on the medal count if they were a separate nation.

Edited August 9, 2021 by xaxat

[NUguy514]

China is handling getting edged out of winning the most gold medals really well, you guys.

[legaleagle53]

5 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

China is handling getting edged out of winning the most gold medals really well, you guys.

Nice try, China. But that means that WE get to claim Puerto Rico's Gold medal, plus anything won by the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, since they're all technically part of the US, too!

[legaleagle53]

Just in case anyone is even remotely curious, to date, the United States has won 63 medals (24 gold, 24 silver, 15 bronze) at the Tokyo Paralympics, which puts us in fourth behind China, the Russian Paralympic Committee, and Great Britain. How is China walloping everyone (their gold medal count alone is 64, and their overall medal count is 132)?

Edited August 31, 2021 by legaleagle53

[legaleagle53]

On 8/31/2021 at 6:34 AM, legaleagle53 said:

Just in case anyone is even remotely curious, to date, the United States has won 63 medals (24 gold, 24 silver, 15 bronze) at the Tokyo Paralympics, which puts us in fourth behind China, the Russian Paralympic Committee, and Great Britain. How is China walloping everyone (their gold medal count alone is 64, and their overall medal count is 132)?

And the final medal count from the Tokyo Paralympics for the US is 37 gold, 36 silver, and 31 bronze. That has us finishing third in golds behind China and Great Britain and just ahead of the RPC, and fourth overall with a combined total of 104.

Ah, well. On to Beijing in five months!