Chinese Gold

Like many Americans, I have been glued to my television for the last week or so, taking in as much of the Olympics from Beijing as I possibly can, like some sort of Olympaholic. Like the good patriot I am, I am constantly paying attention to the medal count, hoping to see the United States run away from everything. As of the time of this post, we have the most medals over all at 79. However, the Chinese have 17 more gold medals than we do and are on our heals with 76 medals total.

Having watched hours of gymnastics, swimming, and track and field, I began to wonder where all of these Chinese gold medals were coming from. They were certainly strong in diving and gymnastics, but to have that wide of a gap over the U.S. baffled me.

So I went to http://www.nbcolympics.com/ to see what their medal breakdown is. I must admit, I went thinking that for sure they were beating us with the "non-sports" such as badminton, table tennis, and trampoline. And yes, they do have an edge in each of those sports with 7 total medals to our 0. But, I was surprised to find that they have really asserted themselves as a force to be taken seriously.

The Chinese have 9 gold medals in gymnastics to our 2. They have 8 gold medals in weight-lifting to our 0. They have 6 gold medals in diving to our 0. Sure, the United States has 12 gold medals in Swimming to the Chinese 1, however, the Chinese have gold medals in 13 DIFFERENT events, the United States only 11 at this point. And relatively few of those events are obscure. In fact, they have gold medals in shooting, judo, wrestling, archery, fencing, and rowing.

So I had to change my tune with regards to the Chinese gold medals. They can feel free to revel in their dominance of the shuttlecock, for with or without it they are still the golden country.