olympic, perfectionist Options

[demolished]

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?

[Gigi]

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.

[kryogenix]

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.

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.

[Gigi]

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

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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 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.