That's not the point. If they don't count the other medals, why list them at all?? Also, a second place is the first loser, so he/she did win something... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! By the way the point of counting down to 3rd or even 6th place is to see a country's depth strength. It is easy to have 1 very good athlete who makes a few wins, but the country has no base in sports otherwise. If we count more places than just gold, we can see more about a country's athletic ability. There, you have it... Edit: Actually, there is more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_medal_table#Medal_count_ranking "The gold first ranking system described above is used by most of the world media, as well as the IOC. While the gold first ranking system has been used occasionally by some American media outlets, newspapers in the United States and Canada primarily publish medal tables ordered by the total number of medals won, and Canada used the total medal count on the official website for the Vancouver Olympics. Before 2008, the difference in ranking system received scant notice, since in recent Olympic history the country that led in total medals also led in the gold count. China and the U.S. bucked this trend at the 2008 Summer Olympics, topping the gold and total medal tallies respectively, and a similar situation occurred at the 2010 Winter Olympics"
Regarding the medal count, yes it seems an odd system. The silvers and bronzes are worthless as far as the table is concerned. As it stands, a single Gold is better than 20 Silvers. That does seem unfair. And it is not really accepted by the competitors. But to say that someone who comes second is as good as someone who comes first, just because they only lost by an inch. I can't agree with that. If you lose by an inch or ten feet, you lost. That's sport.
They seem like good "sports" about being less than 1st. An it is not to bad of entertainment. There is something for everyone.
Why not? Are they less muscular? Did they train less? What is really 0.01 second difference and who else really cares??? Let's say we are business men not athletes. If my company makes 1 billion bucks profit and yours makes 990 million, aren't we both winners????
Take Cricket. Say there is a game taking all five days. England are set a huge target by Australia. It seems sometimes that they will win, and sometimes that they won't. The odds of an English Victory go up and down. Then in the last bowl, of the last over, in the last second, by scoring a six, England beats Australia. Do you suppose the Australians will think "Oh, we really won too. They only won by 0.0001 percent of the match." Or will they be all the more determined to win next time instead of being losers? If you lose by a good distance, you can say to yourself "I did my best, but that person is better than me" But if you lose by an inch. That's when you get really angry with yourself.
I am sorry, but I refuse to take cricket... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Going back to the original topic, I actually enjoy the games more than I thought I would. And where is rhythmic gymnastics???
What is stupid about sexy girls dancing to music??? That is called entertainment!!! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I'm trying to find out how all of the parents of these athletes are getting over there and staying there for 2 weeks and attending all of the events they do. That seems very expensive to me for I really couldn't afford to fly there, stay at a nice hotel 2 weeks, go to all of the events, then fly home. That's well over 10,000.00 in money for that type of trip and I would think even more was spent. I know the athletes are given many free things but how many of us can take 2 weeks off to watch the Olympics? I can barely afford to keep up with the gas prices that I must pay to get around town daily here at home. So how can these families get to go over there if , from what I'm told, some of the parents are in forclosre and going bankrupt? To much money spent on their kids to get the gold medals instead of budgeting themselves to be able to have a home?
Usually, only the best athletes' family are there. Best athlete also should mean you have a sponsor and money from ads, so a 10 days in London shouldn't be a big problem... I am sure Phelps's mom with his 40 million earnings can afford a nice hotel room... And London isn't that far (from America) or expensive (OK, it is expensive but you can rent outside or in the suburbs). Imagine the Tokio Games....
Many (most?) athletes have sponsorship deals. Perhaps the sponsors pick up the tab for family accommodation. Added later. Just noticed. Sysgys said this already. I agree.
I found myself getting really into the Olympics this time around. Last time, not so much. Even cynical about them as I was, I wound up glued to the TV for an overtime thriller between the US and Australia in women's water polo, of all freaking sports! So yeah, I guess I'm going to have to say I care.
I think most people in the UK were cynical about the Olympics. We are getting very resistant to hype. And we have great experience of being ripped off. It's been a great two weeks though. Much better than I ever thought it would be. I'm glad we spent the 15 Billion squids on it. What I have particularly enjoyed is seeing all the hopeful new faces. Lesson learnt. When you are near broke, and at the end of your tether. Take what you have left and blow it on a big party. Is that bad advice? Probably.
Well, the ending was much much better than the opening cerimonies, congratulations to all on a very well done show and have some jelly babies. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I agree. Just pure music, no history bullshit and dancing founding fathers or what the fuck was that...
I wonder why the Olympics don't make a point of including some internationally famous sports like "XGame" type sports: skate boarding, freestyle biking, roller-blading, etc. ~String
Yeah, the BMX was actually pretty exciting, facepamlings, crashings and such. I think the Summer Games are more popular than the Winter Games, so they have less pressure to invent and introduce newer sports. The Winter X Games are way more popular than the Winter Olympics among youngsters <<< advertisers target audience....
BMX was included in the Beijing Olympics too. I thought the opening ceremony was fantastic, great music, humour, amazing visuals. The closing ceremony was a weird mash up of music from very good to very bad, dull visuals and why the hell did they bring out super models? Garbage. Such a shame it's all over for another four years, but I've got my tickets for the Paralympics.