The Olympics thread

[klr]

The only thing I've really watched is Taekwondo.
I've caught some brief moments of other things in passing.

I just considered it note worthy I wasn't speaking out against Americas method of counting medals.

The US doesn't have "a method" of counting medals. The stats show total medals, and then a breakdown of golds, silver and bronze. I wasn't aware that countries had official "methods" in this regard.

Well, there's no one "right" way of doing it, but surely the point of having different medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places is that each is obviously better than the next, if not in an obviously quantifiable way.

Now, if we were to try and somehow put a weighting on each of the 300+ medal events ...

[Mallardz]

We should have in turn points;
3 for gold
2 for silver
1 for bronze

That seems fair then everything is counted as in North America and more golds still results in more credit as in most of Europe.

[Coito ergo sum]

The only thing I've really watched is Taekwondo.
I've caught some brief moments of other things in passing.

I just considered it note worthy I wasn't speaking out against Americas method of counting medals.

The US doesn't have "a method" of counting medals. The stats show total medals, and then a breakdown of golds, silver and bronze. I wasn't aware that countries had official "methods" in this regard.

Don't fucking bite me for how I worded it.
I for one never when I was younger understood why here we didn't count the total medals ourselves, we'd certainly done in the standings. But yes the method/manner/whatever used to count medals varies which I found interesting based on the fact it was suggested it was so the USA could consider themselves above China but that appears to have been incorrect. Sorry I was misinformed...

No offense meant. Sometimes my writing style can seem abrupt or confrontational even when not intended. Sometimes it is intended, but it wasn't here.

I was surprised by the idea that the BBC would say that the US is counting medals differently to make it seem like we're better than China. I have been watching the Olympics since the 1976 Olympics. I have never even HEARD of any "method" "manner" or "whatever" of counting the medals, other than that they keep track of how many golds, silvers, and bronzes, and also total medals. The BBC article sounds more like sour grapes, or some attempt to, as usual, cast aspersions on the US.

[Coito ergo sum]

We should have in turn points;
3 for gold
2 for silver
1 for bronze

That seems fair then everything is counted as in North America and more golds still results in more credit as in most of Europe.

I don't get this. What do you mean "everything is counted, as in North America?" Everything is counted everywhere.

The Olympics themselves do not publish results. Are there official Olympic scorekeepers in your countries that ignore silvers and bronzes or something? Here in the US there is no official scorekeepers. The news reports all the medal counts. That's it.

[Mallardz]

CES; My apologies for returning a comment in a confrontational manner.

People here who get a silver or bronze sometimes get their name in the paper but they are not credited as you would expect they deserve for coming 2nd or 3rd at such a prestigious competition.

[SteveB]

Bought the ref?

Incompetent reffing is more likely, I was just being sensational. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Ref missed an obvious American handball and called an unheard of free-kick almost in the penalty zone cuz the Canadian GK held on to the ball for more than 6 seconds. When called on the ref's blunders by the Canadian soccer players, she retorted with a giggle. WTF women's soccer! Catching up to the men's in terms of incompetence.

Our ladies soccer team is far and away the best in the world.

They weren't that day. Canada got bronze for women's soccer though. Add that to the pile.

[klr]

We should have in turn points;
3 for gold
2 for silver
1 for bronze

That seems fair then everything is counted as in North America and more golds still results in more credit as in most of Europe.

That, or maybe ever 4-2-1. We should probably run several different ranking systems and see which comes out "best". I see an opportunity for a research grant.

...

The Olympics themselves do not publish results. Are there official Olympic scorekeepers in your countries that ignore silvers and bronzes or something? Here in the US there is no official scorekeepers. The news reports all the medal counts. That's it.

Correct, it's even in the Olympic rules that this is never officially done*. But the world, his wife, their 2.2 kids and sundry domestic pets knows that there is a medal race, which is often followed to an obsessive degree.

*The olympics.org web site doesn't seem to have a medals table, but London2012.com sure does.

[PsychoSerenity]

This is by far the worst aspect of the Olympics as far as I'm concerned. It's just a big political pissing contest. It should be about the individual Olympians being the best in the world at what they do, and who cares what country they come from? I enjoyed watching Bolt running faster than anyone else because I've followed his story and it's really fucking impressive what he can do. The same with the British cyclists - it was great to watch them win. But it doesn't make any difference to me that one lot are British and the others Jamaican - they are all people. And I haven't achieved anything by being born in the same country as some of them. I'm not running, I'm not cycling. It's fine to get to know and support the athletes of your own country if you want, but the idea that it means something which country gets the most medals is just sad - my people have this number of gold medals so I'm going to claim some of the glory. Fuck off.

[Coito ergo sum]

CES; My apologies for returning a comment in a confrontational manner.

People here who get a silver or bronze sometimes get their name in the paper but they are not credited as you would expect they deserve for coming 2nd or 3rd at such a prestigious competition.

That is no different here. You'd think winning a bronze was losing.

[klr]

This is by far the worst aspect of the Olympics as far as I'm concerned. It's just a big political pissing contest. It should be about the individual Olympians being the best in the world at what they do, and who cares what country they come from? I enjoyed watching Bolt running faster than anyone else because I've followed his story and it's really fucking impressive what he can do. The same with the British cyclists - it was great to watch them win. But it doesn't make any difference to me that one lot are British and the others Jamaican - they are all people. And I haven't achieved anything by being born in the same country as some of them. I'm not running, I'm not cycling. It's fine to get to know and support the athletes of your own country if you want, but the idea that it means something which country gets the most medals is just sad - my people have this number of gold medals so I'm going to claim some of the glory. Fuck off.

It is, but it can be compulsive viewing in the same way as the Euro-vision voting.

[SteveB]

I think you can get away with nationalistic spirit and rivalry when it comes to something as trivial as sports.

[klr]

I think you can get away with nationalistic spirit and rivalry when it comes to something as trivial as sports.

Exactly. It's a lot better than most of the alternatives.

[Coito ergo sum]

Yeah, I mean, what fun would the Olympics be if we couldn't be discriminatory based on national origin. Trash talking someone else's country is 1/2 the fun, at least.

[Pensioner]

Yorkshire is doing well I see.

[klr]

On the flip side, it's always good to countries winning their first ever medal - like Cyprus, Botswana and Grenada at these games. You can bet winning even one medal is a huge deal in those countries.

Yorkshire is doing well I see.

And in Yorkshire, the Brownlee family is doing very well.