The Chinese scored a couple of touchdowns and now lead the U.S. in the gold-medal race, 22-13.
That is a gap the Yanks won’t be erasing. Not at this Olympics.
China’s golds are concentrated in four sports: Weightlifting (6), shooting (4), diving (4) and gymnastics (3).
(We should note that China has 13 of the possible 14 golds in weightlifting, diving and gymnastics.)
But their success actually is far more wide-ranging than is the American’s.
Yanks have depended on swimmers (well, Michael Phelps, actually) for 10 of their 13 golds and 26 of their total 41 medals.
As I’ve noted before, if swimming weren’t on the Olympic program, we’d be France, in terms of standings.
Also, China has at least one medal in nine sports, while the U.S. has at least a bronze in only eight.
The only hope for the U.S. Olympic Committee here is to escape with the overall medals championship. It’s not as widely recognized as the more meaningful of the counts, but what the heck, it’s all they can hope for.
1 response so far ↓
1 ncv // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Paul, I don’t think this is as desperate a situation as you’re portraying it to be. “If swimming weren’t on the Olympic program …” Well, if my aunt had a penis, she’d be my uncle. And the discrepancy between the number of sports China and the U.S. have medaled in is only one. That’s not exactly vast.
Would it be nice to win some medals in, say, weightlifting or badminton? Of course. But the U.S. never really has won medals in those sports, and they probably never will. The U.S. always has been heavy in swimming and track and field, and lighter in the more arcane sports.
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