Posted on 02/18/2010 9:52:45 PM PST by jerry557
Can’t have that! Unfair! Give some of the medals to Jamaica, Iran and Portugal. It is about outcome not achievement.
>>Igor Lebedev, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party’s faction in the State Duma, said Russia’s performance has brought “bitterness and insult” to the country.
I could’ve taken out the word Russia’ and no one would confuse this with our own “liberal’ Dem Party.
I think America’s population is roughly ten times that of Canada. We draw from a larger pool of exceptional athletes.
That whole per capita argument is stupid. By using that formula...shouldnt China and India have like 50 medals by now? Dont they have like a billion people each?
Well, yeah, but how many ski slopes does Florida have? By the same token, we kick India’s ass, and they have the Himilayas.
how many do the ruskies have now?? Putie poot isn’t going to be happy with them when they get back...lol
Shaun White (snowboard halfpipe). Gold Medal Twice
A native of and lives in No Snow San Diego beach area
speaking of the Russians... Did you see that figure skater? I was *SO* happy to see the USA win - not only because Evan was better but Plushenko was so arrogant and presumptuous.....and in the interview afterward - instead of saying something nice about Lusacek....he talks about how he hasn’t skated in 3 years and how close it was and he was surprised that someone won without doing a “quad” blah, blah, blah.........
Evan was fantastic, and so was Johnny Weir. Can’t figure out for the life of me how he dropped from 5th to 6th behind a bunch of guys who fell repeatedly, including one who had a shoelace malfunction.
Obviously Obama needs to sign an executive order so that the Kenyan snowboard team is granted free access to Shaun’s private halfpipe.
Vermont has 1/60th the population of Canada and in the last winter olympics would have been the 4th or 5th best country all by itself.
I didn’t say it was the whole reason. The truth is that a larger population equals more talent to draw from, and I imagine it helps.
Of course, there are other factors. For example, Asians tend to be smaller than people who live on other continents - even than other Asians who emigrated there. That must affect what sort of Olympic games China is likely to win.
Again, repressive regimes (such as China) and poorer nations (such as India) are less likely than free, prosperous America to have citizens with developed ability. Suppose three children with equal aptitude for skiing are born - one to an average Indian family, one to an average Chinese family, and one to an average American family. Which child is most likely to even realize his talent for the sport, let alone have the training to make him Olympic material?
Lots of factors, guys - including how many athletes your country produces.
Ah, didn’t see your post until after I had replied to the other two. To reiterate my point, there are many factors in who wins the games. I think it stands to reason that one of these factors is how many top-level athletes your country produces, and one of the factors in that is how large the population is.
Russia is not having a good Olympics so far.
They are performing below expectations across the board. They can’t be happy.
Shaun White is impressive, but I frowned on his “air guitar” during the National Anthem...and Shani Davis (impressive as well) did not even bother to put his hand on his heart and maybe looked at the flag once during his medal ceremony. Am I reading too much into it? Just gave me the Zero flashback.
I had to search it out and found a thread posted earlier on the Shani Davis issue. He’s not a team USA fan.
Thanks lilycicero.Shame on him.
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