I love sleep, especially after a hard day’s work. The waking up part can be so refreshing. After a solid 9 hours of catching up, I immediately switched on the computer to check out the score of the USA vs Spain basketball gold medal game. The winner wasn’t a surprise. What surprised me was that a highlights video was already posted on NBC’s Olympics website – dare I say, way to go NBC!
The caption next to the video recap of the final states “Highlights of Team USA’s hard-fought victory over Spain in the men’s basketball gold-medal final.” At this point, I’m licking my chops. Not only is this relatively hot off the press, I’ll actually start the morning knowing that I won’t have to wait until tomorrow morning to watch the highlights.
I press play. LeBron knocks down a 3 to get things going. Next clip is Wade driving for a 2 (ESP 13, USA 11), followed by Paul trying to close the largest deficit the US has faced thusfar. He drives in for a sweet 2, with ….. the score not shown! Paul again for a 2 and a foul (ESP 22, USA 19). This goes on and on, showing just US baskets. It’s an unbelievably frustrating round-up of the game. Not once is Spain shown scoring a basket! Wait, Rubio drives up the basket with 7 minutes left in the 2nd. It’s ESP 36, USA 46. Is this the start of a come back? No, of course they’re only showing this clip because it’s a block at the basket by James.
It’s a bit of an anti-climax. And so the the gold medal has been won. I should have looked more closely at the video link before hitting play. In my excitement, I had neglected to read the statement “Best plays: Men’s hoops gold-medal final”. It should have said “Best US plays (ignore the competition): Men win US hoops gold-medal final and we’ll just show you American play.”
I’m glad the US won, because they played some high quality basketball throughout the tournament and deserved to win, overall. I would say that though, because all I saw was US baskets.
On to more exciting things. Let’s take a look at the final standings of the Olympic League:
|
COUNTRY |
GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
TOTAL MEDAL SCORE |
|
CHN |
51 |
21 |
28 |
223 |
|
USA |
36 |
38 |
36 |
220 |
|
RUS |
23 |
21 |
28 |
139 |
|
GBR |
19 |
13 |
15 |
98 |
|
AUS |
14 |
15 |
17 |
89 |
Congratulations China. A special mention goes to He Kexin for aging 3 years over the course of a year. It doesn’t matter though, you still beat the other gymnasts (who were allegedly way older than you).
See you all in 2012!
Footnote: Final medal count
|
COUNTRY |
GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL NUMBER OF MEDALS |
|
USA |
36 |
38 |
36 |
110 |
|
CHN |
51 |
21 |
28 |
100 |
|
RUS |
23 |
21 |
28 |
72 |
|
GBR |
19 |
13 |
15 |
47 |
|
AUS |
14 |
15 |
17 |
46 |
If you think about it, China did have over 600 professional athletes. It’s no wonder they got so many medals.
Errm! That second medal table has the USA aboe China – medals tables count Gold medals won with Silver and Bronze only used to judge between countries with the same number of Golds. That is how every contry in the wolrd (other than the USA!) and the IOC work it out. Therefore China should sit atop the USA in the final medal table.
Strage that US media outlets decide to start counting total medals won instead of Gold medals won in the year the USA finally slipped from No.1 position in the medals table.
I plead ignorance as to how the medal count was tabulated in the past. I really don’t think that this [keeping track of the medal tally] is what the Olympics are about, except it probably means more to the powerhouse countries.
If what you’re saying is correct, that’s quite a reversal by the US media. Come to think of it, in a country like the USA where coming in second is often considered being the first loser, I’m surprised they don’t use the IOC standards you mentioned.
If I was in the Olympics, I’d dream of gold – still a silver or bronze is pretty amazing.
Great, I didn’t know about that up to the present. Thx!