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Thread: Olympic Games

  1. #161
    Did I miss something or was that a really abrupt ending of the coverage of the closing ceremonies?

  2. #162
    The IOC uses total golds, then total silvers. So the US finished third, behind Canada and Germany.

    I was reading something about the USOC's strategy, in which it has stressed a sort of "diversity" to maximize medals in the winter games, rather than relying on, say, Eric Heiden. So we do better in the bobsled and the Nordic sports than ever before at the expense of throwing all our economic support behind a very few people who are expected to win gold. I even sensed this on teevee, where people (athletes in addititon to nbc) seemed to talk much more in terms of just medaling than in "going for the gold" compared to previous winter games.

    And that's what happened. Personally I like it better this way. It makes more events more interesting to watch from an American standpoint.

    Still, I'm teed off about our dual last-place finish in curling. And Vancouver is a nice place, but it's FAIAP a smaller Seattle... it's Portland with the metric system and free healthcare.

  3. #163
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    Quote Originally Posted by blazindw View Post
    The Canadian government spent CAN$115 million on their "Own the Podium" effort. The U.S. government spent USD/CAN$0 on their "Smash the Podium Record" effort.
    If you think the Canadian government spent more money overall developing this year's Olympic team than the Americans, you're quite mistaken.

    However you value each color of medal, both countries performances were impressive to an unprecedented degree. But the way the American media and population were pining for a Canadian disappointment on home soil was a little unnerving.

    I was only a Math minor at Duke, but I think the Canadian medal haul totals one gold medal won for every two or three maple syrup-eating Canadians. So that's pretty good.

  4. #164
    Quote Originally Posted by DukieInKansas View Post
    Did I miss something or was that a really abrupt ending of the coverage of the closing ceremonies?
    That was weird, but they'll apparently be back on at 10.30 Central after breaking away for some new show and the evening news.

  5. #165
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    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by phaedrus View Post
    If you think the Canadian government spent more money overall developing this year's Olympic team than the Americans, you're quite mistaken.
    Did the American government spend any money on the Olympic team? I don't know, but my guess would be no.

    However you value each color of medal, both countries performances were impressive to an unprecedented degree. But the way the American media and population were pining for a Canadian disappointment on home soil was a little unnerving.
    Blame Dick Pound.

  6. #166
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    Quote Originally Posted by phaedrus View Post
    If you think the Canadian government spent more money overall developing this year's Olympic team than the Americans, you're quite mistaken.
    The U.S. government spent $0. Also, the USOC may take care of athletes once they make the Olympics (in the form of travel and uniforms, room and board, meals, etc.), but they don't subsidize training costs like other nations do, which is the reason many of our athletes use private sponsorships to cover their training costs. If you watched any of the curling coverage, the fact was pointed out many times how John Shuster (U.S. skip) was a bartender and how Jason Smith was a construction worker. None of their costs were covered until they made the Olympic team. Canada's curlers got a government subsidy, which wasn't much but more than having to get a job as a bartender.
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  7. #167
    Aren't China's Olympic athletes all sponsored by their government? I've heard some stories about their rigid system and about the young ages at which their athletes begin to train for Olympic events. A lot like the old Soviet athletes in some aspects.

  8. #168
    Quote Originally Posted by blazindw View Post
    Not necessarily. The record was set back in '02 by the Germans (36) which was also when the U.S. won their most medals before this year with 34. I don't think there are more events, but we had some spectacular performances in events that we weren't even considered to be in the hunt for a medal (nordic combined, hockey) and in events where we haven't won in a long time (bobsled).
    My point was that the US performance can't really be compared to all previous performances. The # of events has increased drastically (maybe not in the last 8 years, but the point remains). It's still a great accomplishment nonetheless.

    I looked up the numbers out of curiosity... between 1984 and 2010 the # of events went from 39 to 86. So the increase is rather dramatic. This year actually only has 2 more than Torino.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Olympic_Games

  9. #169
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    Quote Originally Posted by hurleyfor3 View Post
    The IOC uses total golds, then total silvers. So the US finished third, behind Canada and Germany.
    The IOC does not rank the countries. In fact, it is expressly prohibited in the Olympic charter.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_medal_table

    They do "list" the medals that way, but it could be argued that is merely an organizational listing, not a ranking.
    It makes even less sense, IMHO, to essentially discard silvers and bronzes than the (admittedly flawed) way the US media typically does it, by total medals.
    The best would be a widely-accepted points system, say 5 or 6 for gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze (we'd "win" under that scenario this time, but not in Beijing, BTW).

  10. #170
    Quote Originally Posted by crimsondevil View Post
    The IOC does not rank the countries.
    We're both wrong!

    They *do* publish a ranking, regardless of what they say: http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/ And look at those numbers down the left-hand side. Sure looks like a ranking to me.

    And it's by total medals.

  11. #171
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    The fairest to me, would seem to be like a 5-3-1 pts system. So that winning the gold is better than finishing 2-3, but there is a reason you give out silver and bronze medals. Canada did end the games well, setting a record for number of gold. But of course that's with dramatically more events. I don't think anyone will ever match the Soviet performance at the 76 games in Innsbruck. In 37 total events, they won 13 gold medals. More than a third of the golds went to them. That's pretty impossible to beat - Canada would have to have won 30 golds to win an equal percentage.

  12. #172
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deslok View Post
    The fairest to me, would seem to be like a 5-3-1 pts system. So that winning the gold is better than finishing 2-3, but there is a reason you give out silver and bronze medals. Canada did end the games well, setting a record for number of gold. But of course that's with dramatically more events. I don't think anyone will ever match the Soviet performance at the 76 games in Innsbruck. In 37 total events, they won 13 gold medals. More than a third of the golds went to them. That's pretty impossible to beat - Canada would have to have won 30 golds to win an equal percentage.
    Exactly, I think percentages are always tell more than raw numbers with things like this...just look at the stats from the Dork Polls thread

  13. #173
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    Quote Originally Posted by hurleyfor3 View Post
    We're both wrong!

    They *do* publish a ranking, regardless of what they say: http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/ And look at those numbers down the left-hand side. Sure looks like a ranking to me.

    And it's by total medals.
    but they also make sure not to mention the word "rank" - it's always "sort"

  14. #174
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    Feb 2007
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    I really enjoyed the olympics this year.

    The number of gold medals by Canada is an outstanding accomplishment. The number of total medals by the US is likewise an outstanding accomplishment. To appreciate and applaud both, there is really no need to equate or measure the two against each other.

  15. #175
    Quote Originally Posted by TampaDuke View Post
    I really enjoyed the olympics this year.

    The number of gold medals by Canada is an outstanding accomplishment. The number of total medals by the US is likewise an outstanding accomplishment. To appreciate and applaud both, there is really no need to equate or measure the two against each other.
    Exactly. And congratulations to Slovakia and Belarus who won their first gold medals ever.

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