2008 - Olympic gold medal in Laser Radials - USA
2012 - Olympic gold medal in Laser Radials - CHN
Is this a metaphor for something more fundamental?
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
China Rising
2008 - Olympic gold medal in Laser Radials - USA
2012 - Olympic gold medal in Laser Radials - CHN
Is this a metaphor for something more fundamental?
15 comments:
No. It's just a game. I'd still rather be livin' in the USA.
I didn't offer you a job running a Dim Sum joint in Shanghai. I just asked if this is a sign, a symptom, a metaphor for something deeper going on in the world.
Sport is just a substitute for war, right?
Number of medals does seem to relate to national resolve and having the resources spare to invest in an Olympic Campaign - compare the top two countries now to Olympics in the 1970s when it was US vs. USSR.
I'd have thought it would be the same two countries at the top for the next couple of Olympics at least
In overall medals it does look as if China and USA are dominant. But USA is not doing very well in sailing this year. I saw an interview with Lijia Xu in which she said that sailing isn't all that popular in China yet, but she want to user her gold medal win to go back home and introduce the sport to more people.
99% of Americans aren't aware that sailing is an Olympic sport because NBC doesn't show one second of it on TV. This is a travesty.
It is true that sailing is a fringe sport in the US and that some other countries' sailing teams get more support from their governments. But that has been true for many years. And USA used to be able to win sailing medals. So what changed?
PS The US women's match racing team just got eliminated by Finland. I'm not sure if it's still mathematically possible for the US women 470 team to win a medal but it seems very unlikely. So it looks as if USA won't win a single sailing medal this year. When was the last time that happened?
Supposedly this is the worst performance since 1936.
Based on some table I found in Wikipedia, it looks like USA didn't win any sailing medals at all until the 1932 Games in Los Angeles where they won three medals in the five classes. All those earlier Olympics were held in Europe except for 1904 in St. Louis where there were no sailing events.
It is true that in 1936 in Germany, the USA won no sailing medals.
Then in the first Olympics after WW2 in England, the USA was the most successful sailing nation, winning medals in 4 of the 5 events. Since then USA has won at least 2 sailing medals at every Olympics (not counting 1980 which was boycotted by USA.)
The high point was at Barcelona in 1992 where USA won a medal in 9 of the 10 sailing events.
It would be rather weird if USA got *no* medals. Was surprised to see Anna Tunnicliffe get knocked out of the match racing.
It is now certain that USA will win no sailing medals this year.
Not so much a metaphor as a fact...
At least big business has realised that it is cheaper and more efficient to keep its slaves in the country of their birth and just take the work to them instead of the other way around.
Seems crazy now doesn't it having to buy slaves and pay the costs of housing them and feeding them when you can buy the labour of literally billions of slaves for virtually nothing. In fact they will willingly offer you their services just to eat and pay for shelter so they can hardly complain if their treatment is less than it should be.
Sport is not a substitute for war. Competitive baking, now that get realpolitik real quick.
What are you saying Sloan? USA should hire Chinese sailors to win Olympic medals for them?
Actually you may be on to something there. Weren't some of the top "USA" running stars born in Africa?
Team GB is already preparing for competitive baking - just google "The Great British Bake Off" which starts the week after the Olympic ends
Ha. Take that China. They will never beat Team GB in the pork pie baking event.
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