During the Olympics, I usually feel like the coverage here is overly saturated in American pride and patriotism. It bothers me that the general American public has pretty much no interest in most of the events and doesn't even know how many of them are played or scored, but still has a profound interest in the USA winning lots of medals.
I think every country is the same - they suddenly become briefly interested in an event no one cares about when they're likely to win a medal. If I go to the local news here, I see a list of every event today in which a Czech is competing.
I think it's one of the things that seems worse in the USA because you're a big and rich country with so many successful athletes, so it's possible to spend the whole games only watching events American competitors are likely to do well in. If you're a small country, you might only have one athlete making it to a final of any event all day, if even that, so you have to fill in the rest watching the rest of the world, making you seem less parochial and small-minded.
ABE: I think everyone should choose a small country to cheer for in the Olympics, even if you're from somewhere huge. It's always nice to support a team that's only gonna get a few medals - they all seem that much more special.
For the record, my adopted country so far has one silver, the winning of which was full of drama. He only just made it to the final of the Men's Kayak slalom - ranked eighth out of ten. This meant that he went third, and then had to sit and watch seven others almost beat his time one by one (well, six others 'almost' - one did beat it).
Another thought I had watching the Olympics yesterday. I felt a lot of pity for Li Xiaxiao, the gold medallist in women's singles table tennis. The final ended up being between her and another Chinese contestant, Ding Ning, whose name I confess I can't help but find hilarious.
On account of both contestants being Chinese, most of the crowd has no particular sympathies at the start of the match. However, once it became clear that Li was the better player, support went almost unanimously to Ding, whether because of a desire to support the underdog or just to make the match last longer so the crowd can get their money's worth.
Imagine that - thousands of people cheering uproariously every time you concede a point, and maybe twenty cheering when you score one. That's got to make you feel victimised.
Well, that puts you ahead of China and the U.S., and ensures that you'll beat them at the end.
Adjusted for population, the Chinese require about 750 golds to equal you, and the U.S. would need about 150.
Looking at tables that take population into account gives some interesting information. For example, there's a Canada vs. U.S. subtitle further up the thread. The Canadians have actually outperformed the Americans in the 3 Olympics of this millennium. Sticking to the English speaking world, the U.K. has beaten both of them, but we're still pretty average. The real star performers are the Jamaicans with their small population and brilliant sprinting, and the Australians, consistently the best all round sporting culture in the world.
hehe now that we also have a bronze medal from double rowing or what its called the big countries should just stop playing to not embarrise themselves right heh
Was hoping for at least one more silver or gold medal but our kajak guy screwed up and ended up on 6th place. As for the events that are going to come hopefully one more medal.
Christianity, One woman's lie about an affair that got seriously out of hand
The real star performers are the Jamaicans with their small population and brilliant sprinting, and the Australians, consistently the best all round sporting culture in the world.
Canada's 1996 Olympic gold-medal 4x100 relay team were all originally from Caribbean countries, including Donovan Bailey, our 100-meter gold medalist. I hope we're as eager to "own" all of our immigrants as we are those who shine bright on the international stage.
(And we need to figure out how to attract more Australian immigrants.)
"You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative" William S. Burroughs
I saw them win on men's road race and women's lifting! It was awesome!
I am paraphrasing someone else but it was funny. They said Kazakhstan shows up to the Olympics and acts like champions. Mitt Romney shows up to the Olympics and acts like Borat.
BUT if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not present themselves every hour to our eyes? Do we not see a fair creation prepared to receive us the instant we are born --a world furnished to our hands, that cost us nothing? Is it we that light up the sun; that pour down the rain; and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on. Are these things, and the blessings they indicate in future, nothing to, us? Can our gross feelings be excited by no other subjects than tragedy and suicide? Or is the gloomy pride of man become so intolerable, that nothing can flatter it but a sacrifice of the Creator? --Thomas Paine
The Brits won gold in rowing and cycling yesterday prompting an Australian wit (oxymoron?) to comment that we're good at the sitting down sports.
I looked at the news earlier, and saw that we'd won another couple of medals while sitting in kayaks, one more for sitting in a rowing boat, and several more for sitting on bicycles.
Looking back, I could only think of one medal we'd won without being seated on bikes, boats or horses, and that winner was lying down (swimming). It occurred to me that maybe this was all a grand conspiracy to appear cool. Our team could get to the end of the games and say: "look, we've won a good quota of medals without even having to bother to stand up. Beat that!"
However, I then saw that we'd won a judo medal. While judo presumably involves being in a number of positions, the contestants are surely standing for at least part of the time. Progress, but I couldn't really see this as a true standing medal, which surely should involve being upright through the entire process of winning.
Finally, a gold in rifle shooting. Hurrah! It seemed that the point had been proven that the modern British athlete could manage to win a medal while remaining in an upright position for the duration of the event. Then doubt crept in. It occurred to me that they must take several shots in the final, and they quite likely spend far more their time sitting down between shots than actually shooting. So in some ways this seems the ideal sport for the relaxed modern British sitter.
What's happened? We've known for a while that we're pretty much a nation of armchair sportsmen, but has the armchair mentality now invaded the field? Are the British, inventors of so many sports, now leading the world into a new exciting era in which pretty much everything will be achieved whilst sitting on our arses? At this rate, you might see me medal in a future Olympics (gold for speed reading novels whilst lounging on a chaise longue).
. At least its our first woman gold medal, but i was kindof expecting this one.
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