Great Britain finally tops Olympic table!

[mrswdk]

assuming you're the best country in the world in terms of sports because you are capable of out performing tiny nations is ridiculous.

To be precise, I think his assumption that the US is the best country in the world when it comes to Olympic events is based on the fact that the US is currently outperforming every single other country in the world at Olympic events.

Just look at the current olympic ranking. All the way to the rank 8, you find nothing but 50 million+ countries, only starting rank 9 do you start seeing countries of smaller size. On top of that you can notice 3 countries of 100 million+ citizens in the top 4. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the only variable in effect, but population size seems like a pretty significant one.

That must be why India (pop. approx 1.3 billion) has bagged an impressive 0 medals at Rio 2016 so far.

[waauw]

Good point. If you let a country compete in all events and then ignore the results of the events that country succeeds in, you can draw the conclusion that that country didn't actually do very well.

For example, if you take away World Cups and Euro Cups you can see that Spain and Germany actually have pretty average football teams.

Bad comparison. I would assume that as a CC player you would've known better. Don't compare round robin competitions with direct elimination brackets.

[waauw]

assuming you're the best country in the world in terms of sports because you are capable of out performing tiny nations is ridiculous.

To be precise, I think his assumption that the US is the best country in the world when it comes to Olympic events is based on the fact that the US is currently outperforming every single other country in the world at Olympic events.

Just look at the current olympic ranking. All the way to the rank 8, you find nothing but 50 million+ countries, only starting rank 9 do you start seeing countries of smaller size. On top of that you can notice 3 countries of 100 million+ citizens in the top 4. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the only variable in effect, but population size seems like a pretty significant one.

That must be why India (pop. approx 1.3 billion) has bagged an impressive 0 medals at Rio 2016 so far.

As I mentioned, population size is significant, but it's not the only variable. Clearly development rate is important as well. Look at the top ranking countries. The only nations in the top 10 that are not among the developed economies(and thus infrastructure/coaching/spsonsoring possibilities which can lead to professional contracts rather than semi-professional ones) are countries capable of compensatig through size; China and Russia. The fact that India isn't there means they must have significantly poorer infrastructure/coaching/sponsoring than China and Russia.

[mrswdk]

Good point. If you let a country compete in all events and then ignore the results of the events that country succeeds in, you can draw the conclusion that that country didn't actually do very well.

For example, if you take away World Cups and Euro Cups you can see that Spain and Germany actually have pretty average football teams.

Bad comparison. I would assume that as a CC player you would've known better. Don't compare round robin competitions with direct elimination brackets.

You are quite right. For a fairer analysis, we should only ignore competitions that the US is good at.

[riskllama]

*supposed to be a celebration of humanity, retards... *

[mrswdk]

*supposed to be a celebration of humanity, retards... *

Try telling that to the European hyper nationalists.

[mrswdk]

True to the spirit of this thread, French coaches are now trying to come up with reasons why Team GB aren't as good as France at cycling, despite having won all the cycling golds.

French technical director Isabelle Gautheron caused quite a stir when, struggling to come to terms with Great Britain's domination on the track at the London 2012 Olympic Games, she came to the somewhat paranoid conclusion that the host nation must have had 'magic wheels' they were keeping a secret from everyone else. Four years later, and nearly 10,000 kilometres away in Rio de Janeiro, it's a similar tale of French head-scratching.

"I'm not in their camp, in their country, I don't know how it works, I don't know what goes on. I have a inkling about certain things but I'm going to shut up because it's not good to speak in the heat of the moment," added France's man-three in what was a cryptic interview with French media.

When the US is winning, it's because they have too many people. When GB is winning, they have the right amount of people so it must be because they're cheating.

The best team at the Olympics is, in fact, France, and everyone would realize this if they could just stop fixating on all those outdated, discredited measures of Olympic success such as medals, world records etc. and realized that this is 2016 and success is now measured by je ne sais quoi and well coifed hair. Get with the times, people!

[waauw]

*supposed to be a celebration of humanity, retards... *

Try telling that to the European hyper nationalists.

Look who's talking.

[waauw]

True to the spirit of this thread, French coaches are now trying to come up with reasons why Team GB aren't as good as France at cycling, despite having won all the cycling golds.

French technical director Isabelle Gautheron caused quite a stir when, struggling to come to terms with Great Britain's domination on the track at the London 2012 Olympic Games, she came to the somewhat paranoid conclusion that the host nation must have had 'magic wheels' they were keeping a secret from everyone else. Four years later, and nearly 10,000 kilometres away in Rio de Janeiro, it's a similar tale of French head-scratching.

"I'm not in their camp, in their country, I don't know how it works, I don't know what goes on. I have a inkling about certain things but I'm going to shut up because it's not good to speak in the heat of the moment," added France's man-three in what was a cryptic interview with French media.

When the US is winning, it's because they have too many people. When GB is winning, they have the right amount of people so it must be because they're cheating.

The best team at the Olympics is, in fact, France, and everyone would realize this if they could just stop fixating on all those outdated, discredited measures of Olympic success such as medals, world records etc. and realized that this is 2016 and success is now measured by je ne sais quoi and well coifed hair. Get with the times, people!

I don't understand why sports like road cycling, tennis and football are still at the olympics. Their importance negligeable. I mean who the hell cares who wins at the olympics when there's the Tour de France, grand slams and the Champions League every year.

[notyou2]

Canada won the most gold in this Olympics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Winter_Olympics_medal_table

[betiko]

here's the deal:

UK+france > US of A by the end of the olympics

right now
USA = 28/29/28
GB+France = 27/30/23

I think it's balanced. Only that france + GB have a third of the US population.... but that's all we need, because of the quantity of useless trash citizens USA has; as we can appreciate in this forum.
Basically, people who were not good enough for europe went to the USA, and people from europe that weren't even good enough for that went to australia.

[riskllama]

the celebration of humanity continues...

[waauw]

... because of the quantity of useless trash citizens USA has; as we can appreciate in this forum.
Basically, people who were not good enough for europe went to the USA, and people from europe that weren't even good enough for that went to australia.

[mrswdk]

the celebration of humanity continues...

He's from a country where the government burns gypsies out of their homes while the citizenry cheer them on, what can you expect eh

[riskllama]

where you from again, mrs? china, that's right - you, of all people, should probly keep your mouth shut regarding human rights abuses, hey?

[notyou2]

the celebration of humanity continues...

He's from a country where the government burns gypsies out of their homes while the citizenry cheer them on, what can you expect eh

If there are any Gypsies in Canada, they are a very small group.

[Lootifer]

Coming from a very sporty nation who also happens to be rather small I can say we take a lot of pride from medals per capita stats.

Sure the relationship isn't linear as there's a limited amount of medals, but at the end of the day we have a very limited talent pool - and while I am bias, I think winning a medal for every 250,000 (NZ) is better than a medal for every 2,600,000 (US) and even better than one for every 970,000 (GB).

However the real stars are Jamaica, if you discount countries below 1,000,000 residents (as these tend to be distorted my outliers) they come out on top in medals per capita (gold, total, or weighted) AND medals per GDP (yeah yeah, they are using the USA's GDP in a lot of cases via US universities...)

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-by-gdp:2016

[saxitoxin]

Coming from a very sporty nation who also happens to be rather small I can say we take a lot of pride from medals per capita stats.

Sure the relationship isn't linear as there's a limited amount of medals, but at the end of the day we have a very limited talent pool - and while I am bias, I think winning a medal for every 250,000 (NZ) is better than a medal for every 2,600,000 (US) and even better than one for every 970,000 (GB).

However the real stars are Jamaica, if you discount countries below 1,000,000 residents (as these tend to be distorted my outliers) they come out on top in medals per capita (gold, total, or weighted) AND medals per GDP (yeah yeah, they are using the USA's GDP in a lot of cases via US universities...)

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-by-gdp:2016

according to Wikipedia, NZ has won just one medal in the last 60 years in the Winter Olympics

[mrswdk]

However, the real stars are Jamaica, if you discount countries below 1,000,000 residents (as these tend to be distorted my outliers) they come out on top in medals per capita (gold, total, or weighted) AND medals per GDP (yeah yeah, they are using the USA's GDP in a lot of cases via US universities...)

Jamaican Olympic success aka Usain Bolt.

[mrswdk]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

[Dukasaur]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

Yeah, but how many medals do the Phelps have on Conquer Club?

[waauw]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

Not so average family considering scientific tests have shown Phelps hit the genetic jackpot. His body is perfectly built to excell at swimming.

[mrswdk]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

Not so average family considering scientific tests have shown Phelps hit the genetic jackpot. His body is perfectly built to excell at swimming.

To be able to compete in Olympic level athletics it's pretty much a given that you first need the right genetics.

Genetics which the Phelps family apparently have in more abundance than the population of New Zealand (probably unsurprising, given the average height of a hobbit is 3 foot 6 inches).

[waauw]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

Not so average family considering scientific tests have shown Phelps hit the genetic jackpot. His body is perfectly built to excell at swimming.

To be able to compete in Olympic level athletics it's pretty much a given that you first need the right genetics.

Genetics which the Phelps family apparently have in more abundance than the population of New Zealand (probably unsurprising, given the average height of a hobbit is 3 foot 6 inches).

It IS actually surprising, Have you seen the size of a hobbit foot? They've got large swimming peddles down there.

[Lootifer]

I think you guys are all missing that there is only actually one clear winner of the medals table: the Phelps family.

With 5 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, the Phelps family achieved 1 gold medal per 1 family member, making them the most successful group in the history of the competition.

Were the Phelps family an independent entity in the Olympic medal table they would actually have placed 19th, knocking New Zealand down to 20th.

That's right - the entire nation of New Zealand was beaten by one average Joe family from Maryland, US.

I have no issue bowing down to the shear brilliance that is Michael Phelps. His medal count is somewhat misleading* - but there is no doubt that winning at least one gold at four olympics makes him one of the greatest athletes of all time. He would easily be the greatest NZ athlete of all time by a significant margin had he been a Kiwi.

Also your facts on Jamaica are a bit off. Bolt only collected 3 of their 6 golds (or 3 of their 11 total medals); without Bolt they are still top 5 and would only place below Croatia for countries with more than 1m residents. Their status as one of the greatest track and field nations is beyond question imo.

* swimming has a lot of overlapping events, the athletic ability for a 200m medley is not that far away from that required for a 200m butterfly or 200m freestyle, compared to say athletics where, apart from Usain Bolt (who has the physique of a 200m runner and hence why he seldom leads start to finish in the 100m), even 200m requires quite a different athletic ability compared to the 100m or 400m or 110m Hurdles.