Ever since the fall of the USSR , China has been the toughest competitor to the United States in the Olympics. As the opening ceremonies closed yesterday, the Chinese have now one goal set, to topple the US in the Medals tally .
They came very close to doing so in Athens 2004 , at one point they were even leading the US in the Gold Medal standings but the US finished just ahead of them mostly because of the super performance of their swimmers. [ Going by the way the US is sweeping the swimming gold's, may be Phelps and Co may save the US again ]
On home soil the Chinese have the advantage this time. Both the countries have toiled hard in preparation, the US wants to remain the best sporting country in the world and the chinese want their crown. I personally tip the Chinese to emerge on top atleast in the GOLD medal count . The US will be hard to beat in the overall medals tally, but in the gold’s they are vulnerable .
Both these countries News Media’s are concentrating in the type of Medal Tally that suits them best. The US networks always show the Total medal count and all the anti-US nations or Pro-China nations the Gold Count. China would dearly want to win on both counts to end any debate on who’s better in Beijing.
There is also talk going around on as to how to judge, how much a Gold is worth depending on a country you come from. Lets say for example, If Dana Hussein of Iraq wins a Gold in her 100 or 200 meter sprints, does her gold outweigh Phelps acheiving 8 golds ? .
The traditional method of Medal Tally ’s do not take into account various factors such as the economic and social state of the country, the prevalance of sporting culture and the population of the country.
Newer counting ways such as Medals to Per Capita Income of the country, Medal per million population, GDP – Medals ratio’s would make the final ranking interesting.
After the Athens Olympics, the Australia Bureau of Statistics came out with an table of rankings based on Population per Gold Medal/Total Medals.
Bahamas came in first with 1,59,000 people per gold medal. Australia comes 3rd with 4,12,000 people per medal. The USA comes in 34th position with nearly 2.8 million people per gold. China 53rd with nearly 20 million for a gold. And India with nearly 1 Billion for every medal comes last. [Courtesy - Australia Bureau of Statistics]
Progression of China in the Medals Count
Below i will list the tally of medals from 1976 Montreal Olympics onwards. After the dismantling of the Iron regime of the USSR, China is the one which has any chance of toppling the US.
Courtesy : WikiPedia
1976 – Montreal Olympics – Medal Tally
1980 – Moscow Olympics – Medal Tally
Many of the western countries boycotted moscow because of the Soviet War in Afghanistan .
1984 – Los Angeles Olympics – Medal Tally
In a tit for tat, most communist countries skipped the LA games.
1988 – Seoul Olympics – Medal Tally
1992 – Barcelona Olympics – Medal Tally
1996 – Atlanta Olympics – Medal Tally
2000 – Sydney Olympics – Medal Tally
2004 – Athens Olympics – Medal Tally
For the Chinese, Beijing 2008 is not only about sport . It’s their steadfast ambition to topple the US and emerge as the leading country in the world in all spheres. They believe its their destiny to reclaim lost glory after 200 years of oppression from the Japanese and other Western Powers. If China wins the race, a new era will dawn.
As another blog in this website mentions, India has a long way to go to match the US and China. But we will bide our time.
The Elephant will one day trample the Dragon and the Bald Eagle 
.
Below i will Update each day the Medals Tally of the Top 5 nations. [ Courtesy : Official Olympics Website ]
FINAL MEDALS TALLY OF BEIJING 2008
The Chinese are on the top on Gold’s. The US again won the Total medals tally. London 2012 will be the finale on neutral territory to see if the baton has truly passed.
Click here for the Indian Results in Beijing
Also check Will Crocker Beat Phelps in the 100 meters Butterfly
Please tell us your opinion.Take the Poll .
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China will win more i think…cant say surely…but have an instinct. India must show some will. Russia is a darkhorse and i like it winning
i think china has the firepower,home advantage and adaptibility factors to its advantage..and their training methods always is directed for a gold..it’s important to them.. anything lesser then it is useless..that’s the spirit which every team should posses..
I have a feeling it will be damn close as the games come to an end…may be one or 2 medal difference..
Michael Phelps performance will push US a long way…
man, i have a feelin that china will win the olympic games
wat do u think?
huh?
yea just wat i was thinkin
Dawn xx
Well, can’t tell why, but just have the gut feeling that this time China will become the leader in gold tally. They are prepared, solid in performance where they excell, have a good system in training and rewarding medalists, and have the biggest pool of people available to come forward, it’s all about resources and how they are managed, and the Chinese can manage, that has been proven.
USA will still overpower… there is still a lot of Olympics to go and we still have the sports where we dominate…
Hang on to glory the USA will prevail…
Do you know why in US calculate differently on medal race not by gold but by total number of medals? Or are there any other countries
doing that also?
Thanks…
@marko
Abs right mate. there are many factors that u need to consider before u arrive on a true understanding of what Olympic medal tally reflects.
Does it
1) reflects Physical superiority
2) better facilities for Training
3) Inherent genetic ability of a race
4) per capita and hence the nutritional aspect of ppl of a country…
the true olympic greatness comes when a country wins in a variety of sport and does it by overcoming long standing obstacles in its path…
australia stands up in many ways as a sporting giant..but is it the best ? …
@josh
i think Gold’s have more weightage then silver or bronze…so even if a country has 10 silvers and one gold, the country with gold is ranked higher…
US also calculates in the same Gold higher, rank higher case only…
USA is in with a big fight for supremacy here…it will be very close..but the swimming medal tally of the US may just sneak it in front of China..
and nice coverage or India…thanks for these info..else we americans would have no idea of whats happening over there
per head of population australia has and still will win the most gold. finishing forth in the last two olympics ain’t bad for a nation of just 21 million.now given that the US of Arrogance has a population of around 300 million,multiply our last few results by 15 and we’ll see who the greatest sporting nation on earth is ay!!!! carn straylia.
US pile heaps of technology onto their atheletes. What’s the glory in that?
new zealand will prevai as champions
wow i like your quote one day the elephant will trample the dragon and the bald eagle, you gt me roll in laughter!
anyway, i believe china will win.
All the way china and usa!
@philips
haha thanks man, i know its a little too far sighted..but it would be good for the world if India too becomes a sporting great
China will get more Gold Medals than the USA.
I love China,GO GO GO…….
and i am from China~
No doubt that China is putting on perhaps the best performance it ever has at the Olympics, in terms of gold and total medal count. I think the US will be on top in terms of total medals when it’s all over, and possibly golds as well, depending upon their performance in the track/field events, and the finals of the conventional team sports (basketball, baseball, hockey, volleyball, etc.). China has been very strong in diving, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, shooting, weightlifting. However, I do not forsee any major dominance in the final week from China.
The biggest surprises so far:
1. Jamaican sprinters
2. Chinese weightlifters
3. The relative weakness of Russia in terms of total medal count and gold medals.
I am a chinese living in China. And I think:
1. USA will of course be the number 1 in medal count.
2. China got a slight chance to be number 1 in gold medal count.
This result actually shows only the success of china’s sport organization ability. China’s success doesn’t reflect the fact among chinese citizens, sport is not as popular as in US or Japan.
But good results in Olympic, will make chinese people more confident in all sorts of sports. So I personally pay more attenetion to China’s breakthrough.
In athens, chinese women pair won the Tennis gold medal. guess what? Tennis is very fashionable nowadays.
And this time, China got breakthrough in Fencing, wrestling, rowing, arching, and debuted in Equastrain. This will help to increase the popularity of those sports. Especially the rowing, one gold medal do means a lot. Rowing has always been dominated by westerners, but we chinese won a gold medal. This will increase the confidence as much as what Liu Xiang has did in Athens on 110meters hurdle.
So, medal count or gold medal count doesn’t matter.
@Mark turner
the Russian weak performance is being overlooked in these olympics…
there are still about 130 golds to go…lets see how the track and fields play out..
I feel it will be very close with china managing to just come out on top in the GOLD’s and US in the overall medal category
@FHY
very correctly said. Nation Building is also a major factor for which Sport should be encouraged. China has succceded in doing so very soon
China is the sure winner in this Beijing Olympics in both the gold and overall medal tally. They have the ability and strength plus the home advantage. They are good in gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting, badminton and many individual sports. They lagged behind in swimming, athletics and group games. London 2012 olympics will be the first test for their superiority. They never had been 1st in the medal tally since the start of modern olympics. Money and technology really count in sports and second is the population. China is in economic boom and there are 1 billion more Chinese than Americans. But based on statistics, the US is the only country with most number of medals in the history of modern olympics.
I am pretty much sure, China will topple up USA in medal race this time. I salute to China, the way the emerged as winner. Moreover, the China intention is to herald a new era in the History of Olmpics, and let other country know it is come up one of the most progressive country in every sphere. India, is no where if see China, even India is the poorest country, who has to struggle lot more to show his ponential..Good Luck India…
“The US networks always show the Total medal count and all the anti-US nations or Pro-China nations the Gold Count” – well, unless you are counting everyone who is not in the USA as being anti-US, I think you are wrong. Of course, gold has greater weight than silver or bronze. Even with the Gold=3x and Silver=2x method, China is ahead. A lot is China’s ambition, but I suggest most is US hubris.
@JsPoint
It was cheeky of me to put it in the extreme way of potraying the nations as either Pro or Anti US
I was just pointing out that ppl are putting out whats convinient to their ideology, viewers etc ..
and as u said GOLD is supreme, its worth much more than a silver…
I find your “Medal Tally By world population graph” very cool.
Medals won per million inhabitants, gives a completely different view.
I have found a small widget that shows exactly that. Have a look at it:
http://www.youcalc.com/pubapps/1219241629771/?/cswid=48abc6bc903b61d0
Jamaica and Slovenia are in a close race to win the Olympics!
Whether this angle is more correct – I’m not sure:-)
james
@ James
hey, its a damn cool widget. I will add it directly in the blog post in sometime..
@James
The population/medal viewpoint has a major disadvantage to countries with large populations because the number of athletes a country is allowed to send is limited. For example, the USA can only send one basketball team, and they can only win 1 possible medal. However they are capable to send several medal contending teams. The same goes true for China in Ping Pong, Korea for arching, etc.
As a result, countries with very large population are very unlikely to rank high in the population/medal list.
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I’m always excited to visit this blog in the evenings.Please keep on churning out the content. It’s very entertaining.
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