Reuters :
Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima and Chinese gymnast Yang Wei led a golden day for Asia on Thursday that showcased the continent's growing sports might.
Kitajima, Asia's greatest swimmer, stole the spotlight from Michael Phelps with an unprecedented "double-double" in the Olympics breaststroke, adding the 200 meters gold to earlier victory in the 100, after wins in both events in Athens 2004.
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The "sour grapes" mentality during these olpmpics has made the US look like sore losers.
Our country is better than that.
The olympic games are all about the atlhetes - and win or lose they should act like the sportsmen they are.
The worst of the worst offender is the womens gymnastic team - the team and their coach trying to blame their loss on an official is laughable. Then to top it off, NBC has Bella Karosi (sp) mugging on air basically accusing China of cheating.
Like I said before, the US is better than that.
I forgot to mention the controversary surrounding Mark Spitz - reports that he was angry and upset about not being invited to the olympics actually forced him to appear on the Today Show to discount those rumors.
Where has true sportsmanship and pride in country gone? To China, just like everything else.
My advice is: stop being sore losers and act like true sportsmen!
I don't know how Mark Spitz refutes the rumor that he is angry and upset when he goes on ESPN and saus he's angry and upset.
Sour grapes? Chinese CHEATING is well documented. Their hard- working competitors can in no way be called sore losers. They have been robbed! Study- up,bro!
I am sick of China spiking the gold medals with lead! This crime must be denounced not just to IOC, but to the hague! The Chinese must pay millions in compensation to all gold medal winners, for their lives have been put at high risk. This what China is! Nothing more, and nothing less: an international Villllain who have never been awarded the Olympics! Not even Hitler dared to spike the olympic medals!
They really should give Hitler credit for coming up with the concept in the first place of using the Olympics to legitimize their political hegemony. Do the results breed respect or intimidation? About as much as I fear from their "16 year old" women gymnasts.
China may approach - and hopes to surpass - the United States in the gold medal count at the Beijing Olympic Games. Nearly all of its Olympians emerge from the 3,000 or so sports schools, which have some 400,000 student athletes.
The sports schools focus resolutely on winning Olympic gold medals. Athletes endure training regimes that are more punishing than anything in the West, and are treated as soldiers going to battle. China's campaign for glory symbolizes the state's rise - with little regard for individual liberty or rights but often attaining great success and later enshrining winners as heroes. "Chinese sport is like the military. It's a big hierarchy. The best athletes get sent to sports schools such as the Zhejiang College of Sports, including Olympic swimming and diving pools, indoor and outdoor track facilities and a smattering of foreign coaches. China is one of the few countries that still operate state-run sports schools modeled on the system of the former Soviet Union. "Statistics show that 95 percent of good athletes - gold medalists and world champions - are from sports schools like ours," said Shi Fenghua, the vice principal of the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing, China's capital, where some students enter at
China owns our economy anyway, after decades of propping up our wasteful ways, so I guess our 'gold' belongs to them, too.
All your gold are belong to China.
That's the truth of it anyways.
What is truly inspiring is not how many medals won by anyone, man or woman, but those who finished the line against all odds. That sum up the spirit behind the games.
Math lesson: "China Leads US Golds By More Than Half" is not the same as saying "China has more than twice as many Golds as does the US". This headline suggests that China has at least 16 Golds (i.e. China is leading by more than half of the US golds, or by at least 6).
China won 22 Gold-Medals, that means with 1,3 Billion citizen a Gold-medal for every 60.000.000
USA won 10 Gold Medals, with 300 Million citizen its a gold-medal for every 30.000.000
That means: the USA is twice as good as China!!
But dont look at countries like Germany, they won 7 gold-medals with 80 Million people, that means a gold medal for every 11.000.000
No problem, jingoism involves industrial-strenght hypocrisy and endless double standards.
How many immigrants are playing for the U.S.? Count that in please.
Let's try this again, and hopefully my comment won't be scrubbed again: Huffpost: On the Home page, your header for this article is "China 22, America 11" America is a continent comprised of 21 countries. Your header should refer to the U.S., U.S.A., or United States...
Netherlands Olympic Medals
4 Bronze, 1 Silver, 1 Gold equal 6 medals and not 3 as the USA hater claims.
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Germany and Italy have 12 golds. Their combined population amounts to less than half that of the US. That translates to a lot more medals per citizen. Guess the US isn't the "greatest olympic country" in the world, after all...
BTW I'm a citizen of the world, I don't even know how many medals my country won and honestly couldn't care less. Jingoism is for 5-year-old
Hey Amanda, why don't you push Canada for that "Citizen of the World" crap. You know, just give up your country to the Chinese, have them send troop carriers filled to the brim so they can just take over and be done with it?
You can sprinkle them with flowers while you sing Kumbia while they lead you into the labor camps.
Then the world would be at peace and you can start your "citizenship".
So you're a citizen of the world, but you still find it important to go out of your way to make fun of the U.S.? So you're a citizen of every country in the world except America, is it?
Look, do you think that America is the only country in the world that is trying to claim bragging rights about being the "greatest olympic country in the world"? How about instead of pretending to be so even-handed, you drop the hate altogether and stop taking everything so seriously.
Oh no - it is AmandaBC, the Russian-loving America hater. Tell us again how the Russians are the "good guys," as raping and pillaging is taking place by Russia-associated militias?
Yeah, you know what is always a common thing? People who say they are a "citizen of the world" and being an anti-American.
You know what is sad? Your "reverse" jingoism, which is not any better then jingoism.
And if you don't care about your country's medal count, why do you feel the need to come here and talk about the US's medal count? A need for attention? Cluelessness? Or just your anti-Americanism, which propels you into fits of keyboard mashing and verbal diarrhea ?
I feel it's probably the latter.
If he hated America then he would not spend his life on here trying to get attention from Americans,like he does.
You don't even realize how funny you are when your jingoism soars... I can see his point... His pushing your buttons and you react like a 5-year-old
But the US leads in "GOLD" (Crass, I know)
China
GDP (Nominal) (2007)
Total.....
Per capita ......$2,0
USA
GDP (nominal)
2007 estimate
Total.....
Per capita...$
1% of Americans making gazillions (mostly by looting taxpayer's money or managing daddy's humongous inheritanc
"And if you do, suddenly the US looks more like a third-world country than Europe, Canada, Australia etc..."
Look I'm not fan of American greed, but this is hilariously stupid. Canada's unemployment rate is TWICE what America's is. You throw Europe together as if it was all the same country when many of them have ghettos that would've been an embarassment even 50 years ago (uh, France). Australia has a lonnnnnng history of poverty problems, particularly with their rural poor... criticize the U.S. all you want, but at least be honest about it when you do, instead of assuming that every other country is full of butterflies and gumdrop rain.
"1% of Americans making gazillions (mostly by looting taxpayer's money or managing daddy's humongous inheritanc
and 76% of all statistics are made up.
More diarrhea of the brain.
Actually, the GDP and average income of the US is very high, thank you very much.
So what? Why are people so obsessed with medals?
The whole point of the Olympics is how sports and healthy competition brings people together. Didn't you watch the Opening Ceremony? Over 200 nations showed up, and the overwhelming majority of the countries, much less the athletes, won't win even one medal. But they show up anyway.
People have such a lousy attitude. Disappointment and anger at getting silver, instead of celebrating the achievements of the athletes.
It would help though if NBC coverage were better. They ignore so many of the sports, so the young children in our country never have their eyes opened to trying archery or fencing or table tennis. Instead, we have a overabundance of gymnasts and swimmers. If we want to up our medal count, then we need our children to see athletes in as many sports as possible.
"So what? Why are people so obsessed with medals?"
Bacause jingoism is America's true national sport...
And what are YOU for AmandaBC? You call names really well. Most 5 year olds can do that. How about stating what YOU think should happen in this country. And try to do it withOUT using the over-used term "jingoism", if possible.
Oh grow up. Jingoism is EVERY country's true national sport. Or are you only interested in hating America because they're the ones who figured out how to win while doing it?
Do you really believe that every other major nation in the world is some kind of benevolent charity nation? Every one of your comments is some kind of petty snipe at America, as if America beat you up in 3rd grade. Do you actually have something meaningful to contribute to the conversation or are you content with being petulant?
I'm right with you on the "coverage". It's not just NBC though, my friends in Australia were saying the same thing. I really rankle at having just the female beach volleyball team showcased EVERY day - "will they win their 105th in a row?".
Show me something (anything) else.
they only play every 2 days! plus they look hot in those suits
Well put.
American kids don't see that there are many paths, not just a few. There are many great sporting traditions at the Olympics with real-world opportunities, and most just get ignored.
For instance, the NRA champions gun rights so every kid can one day own a gun. How many will become marksmen? (don't even ask me to say marksperson) How many will hone their skills to Olympic levels, and how many will be content shooting squirrels and birds and rabbits? America: everyone can own a gun; who cares if they're any good at using one.
The truth is that its the slimy influence of politics and nationalism in the Olympics that truly tarnish the event. The USA needs to get more gold medals than China in order to be considered the "winner" of the entire Olympics, otherwise it's a disappointment. I don't get that. The US needs to foster a better understand of the world community and our place in it.
No empire last forever, and unless we want to reap what we sow, we need to begin returning the US to the light of civilization, rather than this cowboy-driven wilderness we're in right now.
Further proof that America is dying. The economy, the people divided, the dollar sinking, what else can go wrong? Good job Republicans. And now maybe Americans will reward you for your fiscal responsibility and the way you've lead this country with another 4 years! YAY!
Yes, clearly Olympic medal counts are the way to judge the health of an empire. Clearly.
You know what's killing America? Getting hamstringed by useless cynicism from the left when we should actually be doing something instead of throwing rocks at the wall and paraphrasing Marx all the time.
I think we were past the days of using sport as a political tool. Your front page shows the old days have not gone by. Very sad.
uh... clearly you didn't watch the opening ceremony. The entire display had political overtones (showing the might of China, etc).
In a gathering of the world, you can NEVER separate politics. Thinking you can do so is wishful thinking.
Why is the far right plagued with psychosis? For your information, the opening ceremony was about the history of their civilization which is over 3,000 years old. My God is they had paraded out tanks or missiles then you might have a point.
You people on the far right really need to curb your paranoia deluisions. Do us all a favor and get back on your meds, and I'm not talking about OxyContin or Vicodin.
With this kind of headline/attitude, no wonder NBC can barely stand to photograph athletes from other countries on the platform with Americans--much less actually show them competing.
I remember when the Olympics we saw here were much more international in feeling--including more profiles and interviews with other countries' athletes--and it was a lot more fun than making every event into another opportunity to chant, "Go, USA!!!"
NBC would rather show each and every routine of American gymnasts who are 12th and 14th than to show athletes from other countries who are seriously competing with each other for the bronze.
It would be exciting watching the best athletes from all over the world in (usually) friendly, respectful competition. (Then again, while I admire Phelps' tremendous accomplishments, I think I'm the only American who, at this point, would rather watch...oh
Even Leni Riefenstahl extensively covered non-German athletes. Trying to out-na_zi the na_zis seems to be a constant neo_con goal...
Looking at the biased way that NBC has been covering the games it would seem to the uninformed that the US has gotten 200 gold medals so far. Why can't we get a decent and objective Olympics coverage and at the same time enjoy watching the performance and accomplishment of all these young athletes regardless of their country? Can we just step out of this idiotic sense of false patriotism for at least a couple of weeks???
If you went to each country during the Olympics you would see the same biased coverage for the home country. People like to cheer for their countrymen/women in Olmpics.
Wrong, I've been watching "Televisión Española" (Spain's version of PBS) and they really get you to know about the different events whether there are Spanish athletes competing or not. Of course there is a sense of national pride when an one of their own gets a medal, but they do not exaggerate it as we tend to do. It is a matter of perception and consciousness of what the world is. In other words, they don't see the world as their own playground, which unfortunately we do. Can we stop being stiff necks (as George Bush or John McCain) for at least a while.
McCain probably wants to attack anyone with more medals!
Think how many he'd have if they gave out medals for crashing your plane....
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First Posted: 08-14-08 08:18 AM | Updated: 09-14-08 05:12 AM