Americans-Bad Losers

MagicJ · Post by **MagicJ** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:01 pm

Everyone else ranks the Olympics medal table by number of Golds won........not the Americans it seems

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Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:14 pm

Seems that's the way in happens in the US of A

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:23 pm

MagicJ wrote:Everyone else ranks the Olympics medal table by number of Golds won........not the Americans it seems

Sorry, no one loves an American-bashing more than me but I don't get your point.

antarctica_moon · Post by **antarctica_moon** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:26 pm

honestly, that's the way they've always have done it in the US

sinikettu · Post by **sinikettu** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:29 pm

American logic coming 3rd 80 times, is better than coming 1st 79 times.
It is all about competing/taking part..not winning...so I am told.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:34 pm

mrshourula wrote:
MagicJ wrote:Everyone else ranks the Olympics medal table by number of Golds won........not the Americans it seems
Sorry, no one loves an American-bashing more than me but I don't get your point.

China is clearly better but still USA is on first place. Its not counted by amount of medals but by value of medals so most gold = first in here. You look "lesser" medals only if two have same amount of gold metals.

sinikettu · Post by **sinikettu** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:37 pm

The Official Table.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic ... efault.stm

Note Finland is above Sweden....

antarctica_moon · Post by **antarctica_moon** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:46 pm

Some (not all) Americans take this type of stuff seriously, talking about how "we're falling behind the Chinese".

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:50 pm

sinikettu wrote:American logic coming 3rd 80 times, is better than coming 1st 79 times.
It is all about competing/taking part..not winning...so I am told.

Oh, I get what your saying. But, on the other hand, if you only count the gold,then aren't you dismissing the accomplishments of the other athletes who won a medal?

sinikettu · Post by **sinikettu** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:56 pm

mrshourula wrote:
sinikettu wrote:American logic coming 3rd 80 times, is better than coming 1st 79 times.
It is all about competing/taking part..not winning...so I am told.
Oh, I get what your saying. But, on the other hand, if you only count the gold,then aren't you dismissing the accomplishments of the other athletes who won a medal?

OK lets go to the "official" web site. The one that the BBC borrow their table from

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

Ranking on the medal table is done by allocating points to medal type.
3 points gold 2 points silver 1 point bronze..so those who won bronze and silver are counted.

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:02 pm

sinikettu wrote:It is all about competing/taking part..not winning...so I am told.

Guess that Swedish wrestler who won bronze didn't read that Olympic bulletin

But I know what you mean.

ajdias · Post by **ajdias** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:25 pm

Here's the table for 2004 from usatoday

China comes second despite clearly having less medals than Russia (63 vs 92).

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:54 pm

mrshourula wrote: But, on the other hand, if you only count the gold,then aren't you dismissing the accomplishments of the other athletes who won a medal?

Finland didn't lose the 2nd big one, USSR won and Finland came in a good second

the Finland-Sweden national games are coming up... as they say "it doesn't matter who wins - as long as its not Sweden"

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:56 pm

antarctica_moon wrote:honestly, that's the way they've always have done it in the US

Americans do a lot of statistics "wrong way around" ... like the mpg... we have X liters per 100 km as consumption... Americans do X miles per gallon = WTF?

MagicJ · Post by **MagicJ** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:58 pm

mrshourula wrote:
sinikettu wrote:American logic coming 3rd 80 times, is better than coming 1st 79 times.
It is all about competing/taking part..not winning...so I am told.
Oh, I get what your saying. But, on the other hand, if you only count the gold,then aren't you dismissing the accomplishments of the other athletes who won a medal?

It's nice that competitors who get 2nd or 3rd place get a bit of silver/bronzewear, but they LOST, there's only one winner, hence the table should be judged on golds, end of.
Sure the achievement of reaching and placing in an Olympic final is a massive achievement but it's the winning that counts and the taking part (and failing to win) is simply a confirmation of your abilities as one of the top athletes in the world, not the best.
I'm just glad others like American bashing too

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