http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug...o&type=lgns
If you look at the right side of the website, you see a list of medals whereas America has 31 gold with a total of 102 medals while china has 47 gold with a total of 89 medals.


What do you think?

You better thank me Steven for bumping this thread that obviously failed, but since there's like NO topic to post in, I decided to come back to this one to post.

It's all about cultural beliefs. Chinese/Asians have that mentality to be the best. 2nd isn't good enough, and trying isn't going to do it. Just like our parents when we bring home our report card and we get 5 A's and 1 B+. The parents look at the B+ and yell at you, instead of looking at the 5 A's and praising you. Oppose to the American culture and belief, trying is all that matters. That's why Chinese people are winning so many medals. Also let's take into account how many Chinese people are participating in these events making their % of winning higher as compare to small countries with only 10 people in the Olympics representing their country.

Too bad China is gonna lose a bunch of those golds.

China should thank the Jamaicans for holding USA back. Its kinda of puzzling how they have all those gold medals but the most popular events they don't dominate at all, except Gymnastics which is left in the hands of the judges who only give good scores to popular countries such as US.

Like Tung said, it's all culture and society. Chinese people DO NOT accept mediocrity - and mediocrity means anything lower than a Gold medal. I sometimes laugh when I watch CBC (Canadian channel), and they have like a 30 minute montage complete with moving, grand music like some you would hear in "Gladiator" and dramatic visual effects for Adam van Koeverden, Canadian kayaker. He completely bombed his first event and then "comes back" to win Silver in the other one, in which he was leading for a while, and suddenly he's a national hero.

What the f**k is this? Canada embraces mediocrity like no other country I know, and the Chinese are almost the complete opposite of that. Canadians say, "You tried your best!" or, "You beat your own personal record!" No, none of that for the Chinese. You either succeed or you don't. Silver is a disgrace. Bronze is a failure. Any ranking otherwise makes you worthless.

Chinese athletes are hand-picked in a systematic way - it goes from city teams, to provincial teams, to the National Team. Only the very best are selected, and it's this system that manages to find the obscure talents within very small villages. And when the best are chosen, they train intensely in sports schools away from home, full-time, in the sport they are deemed most ready to take on. Many of the athletes haven't seen their families in years. They're also determined to win medals in events they've never excelled at before, especially those with a high volume of medals. Google "Project 119" for more details.

Add to the fact that there are 1.3 billion people in China, making China way more likely to find brilliant athletes just by the sheer volume of people.

So, looking in every single corner in a huge country with a huge amount of people = lots and lots of medals.

There is a lot of pride involved. Chinese people never want others to look down upon them, and while they start off small, they are determined and demand the respect from people that have once thought they were useless. They want to be the best, and prove to people that they are worthwhile. It has been this way for several thousands of years. That's why they don't give a f**k if you accuse their gymnasts of being too young, or tell them off for lip-syncing scandals, because they're used to that kind of criticism from other people and have always come around in the end.

Some people don't really understand how China wins so many Gold medals because they haven't done the research, and therefore don't know the amount of time and money goes into cultivating world-class athletes and milking the most from the system. That's just the Chinese way, in sports, in business, in politics, and in life.

/Yet another essay.

If they're used to the criticisms, why aren't they allowing protests during the Olympics? Why are they beating foreign journalists who are covering things that are embarrassing to China? Why are they censoring any debate over the age of their gymnasts and taking down public records of their age?

Only because of the Olympics China has been placed under the microscope. And they're doing their best to try to paint the rosiest picture they can, even if it means beating up journalists, squashing protests, forcing people out of their homes, forcing people to clean up their polluted ocean, forcing people to attend their empty stadiums, using fake minorities and fake singers and fake fireworks in their ceremonies, etc. etc.

I hope China loses some of those Gold medals.

USA number 1, woo hoo.


Oh as for what I think, I think this should be moved to sports

Have the US always used the 'Total Medals' way to rank countries?

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I was talking mostly about Gold medals, not participating in a debate, so I forget to be more specific. China is used to dealing with criticism, in precisely all the ways that you've just mentioned. You can't really argue that it hasn't been working for them. That's just the very nature of the Chinese government, to hide and conceal. And yet you bring up all these questions, and you know what the answer is to all of them.

I should reword further, to say that China doesn't give a f**k about what others think about their decision-making.

For the most part, I don't disagree with the points you've made. What I don't agree with is how a country's decision-making, politics, and errors in judgment discredits a nation's medals and how it discredits an entire international event that is the Olympics, and its Opening Ceremony.

gigi,

America's rank is by all medals. What about china's ranking chart? I'm just curious, because I can't read Chinese to browse through the website.
http://cn.yahoo.com/

Never mind, if you can't read it too.




thanks
man, i deleted my prompt for this topic.

Of course cheating works for them. If cheating didn't work, no one would do it. What are you saying here, ends justify the means? Would you care if a team gave their cyclists motorcycles instead of bicycles to race with, as long as they won the gold?

If China cheats, they deserve the shame of losing their medals.



Clearly they do, since they're bothered enough to censor people about it.



China's decision making, politics and errors in judgment should have disqualified them from having the games in the first place. Everyone knew China is full of shit, yet they still allowed them to have the games based on promises that everyone knew China wasn't going to keep.

China didn't want the games for the benefit of harmony in the world, they wanted the games to wave their dicks in the air. They don't give a shit about the Olympic spirit, or even the dignity of human life. All they care about is making China look good and making money off of it.

I didn't even click the link actually, because I know that China, and the rest of the world, rank by number of Gold medals. The US is the only country that does it by the total medals period. I was wondering if that was always the case.

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Come on, now you're just nitpicking my choice of words. I'm not justifying anything. I'm saying that it is what it is, and that I agreed with you (). And the keyword here is if China cheated, just like if any other countries did the same. Nothing has been proven yet.


More bitchy nitpicking, adds nothing to your argument either. Not that you need to because that's not what I was arguing about.


Now that's what I was arguing about.

A lot of that is your personal opinion, backed up with nothing. How do you know what China wanted the games for? Making China look good - every country wants themselves to look good, they can't be blamed for wanting that. And making money off it? That's funny. China spent $44 billion on the Olympics - that's around 7 times the amount spent in Sydney. And host nations consistently lose money when hosting the Olympics, so money was definitely not a factor going into it.

Yes, waving their dicks in the air is a way to put it, perhaps a nicer way to say it would be that they want to show the world another different side of China. But the Western world has given China no such chance. How can a stubborn country like China ever change their ways if the feedback they receive is only negative and hostile?

You might reply back that there is no other side of China, that they're covering their shit with flowery rosy pictures; that they are inherently, thoroughly bad. But you know that's not true (or, I assume that you do, because I don't take you as a dumbass). There are positive and negative aspects to any nation, any government, any thing. Nothing is written out in black and white, no one is really all bad or all good, and you'd be naive to think so. Sometimes the good overpowers the bad, and vice-versa. Sometimes the good is made out to overpower the bad, and vice-versa.

The Western media decided to show readers only the bad side. Do a quick Google for "Beijing Olympics" and most of what you'll see is negative bullshit spewed by dumbass, biased, ignorant American and British journalists. Hardly any of the articles should be called articles, and instead, racist editorials written by journalists drooling out of one side of the mouth on a China bash-fest.

Is it worse for a country to censor all bad journalism and show you the good, or for a country's media to manipulate and selectively show you the bad, and conveniently forget about the good? One violates journalistic and human rights, yes, but another violates the ethics of fair journalism, free speech, and equality for all that the West hold so dearly to their hearts. The difference is that the former is called "propaganda" while the latter is called "free speech". Journalists have the obligation to present the whole truth objectively and in equal proportion. There exists a double-standard here.


To say that China doesn't deserve to host the Olympics is ignorant and petty. There are more important things to consider when choosing a host country apart from just these factors. In a country of 1.3 billion people that make up over 1/5 of the world's population, surely they ought to be represented? Otherwise, how would a mutual understanding and tolerance be created? You insist on having Olympic spirit, when in fact, you can't really say for sure that any other past host nation encompassed all those characteristics.

What I gather that you're trying to say here (and apologetically, in a very condensed manner) is that China shouldn't be allowed to host the games because they're not treating other people nicely. And at the same time, you believe that there should be harmony in the world, equality, fairness, all in the name of Olympic spirit.

But how does that work, to place yourself on a high pedestal, scolding China with, "You aren't worthy, you're not deserving, you're a low piece of shit"? That is the exact opposte of Olympic spirit. Are you going to tell me that China discriminates, violates in the same way? Even children know that saying "He started it first!" doesn't excuse you from wrongdoing. Yet another double-standard.

If anything, China should be able to follow someone's lead, but that is impossible if they have to endure wave after wave of attacks. Sometimes cynicism needs to die down in order for the positive to shine, and in order for the positive to further blossom and encourage positive changes in the future. And don't tell me that there are no positive things to learn from China, because that's just a load of shit.

The Olympics were a perfect opportunity to show China what they could become, to lead by example, to be role models. That was thrown away immediately when Western media decided to be hostile and unsympathetic. It's about give and take, and while China tried to give, others didn't receive, instead refusing time and time again. I fear that in the future, China will never change because of the stubbornness of other countries that say they want China to change, but do nothing to help otherwise.

The whole point of what I'm saying is that there are multiple sides and points of views to everything. You can never know the true story if you blindly refuse to listen, and if you don't listen, you can't help. Nothing can change in a poisonous environment like this.

Have fun reading. Looking forward to your reply.