Stop bashing USA sports

Originally posted by Esoteric
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbytitle/BE9F47591541E29ECA256EF40004F25A?OpenDocument

"On 18 August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released an alternative view of the traditional Olympic medal tally to take into account the populations of competing nations."

Gold medals per capita

1. Bahamas
2. Norway
3. Australia
4 ...[text shortened]... sing considering our love of watching, playing and anything to do with the outdoors and sport.

doesn't seem to work on 2004 olympics though:


4 Australia 17 16 16 49
pop 21 000 000

2,33 medals per every 1M aussies.


11 Cuba 9 7 11 27
pop 11 300 000

2,38 per 1M

Originally posted by wormwood
doesn't seem to work on 2004 olympics though:


4 Australia 17 16 16 49
pop 21 000 000

2,33 medals per every 1M aussies.


11 Cuba 9 7 11 27
pop 11 300 000

2,38 per 1M

Might want to check your figures because that website was based on the 04 Olympics. And you have Aus' population wrong.

Also if you want to go by total medals won, then Australia is actually second.

Originally posted by Esoteric
Might want to check your figures because that website was based on the 04 Olympics. And you have Aus' population wrong.

australian population:

20,980,124 (5 June 2007 - Australian Bureau of Statistics) **Preliminary results from Australian Census 2006


if the medal stats are correct, my numbers are correct. well, now that I checked, I made a rounding error: cuba has actually 2.39 medals per 1M, not 2.38.

Originally posted by wormwood
australian population:

20,980,124 (5 June 2007 - Australian Bureau of Statistics) **Preliminary results from Australian Census 2006


if the medal stats are correct, my numbers are correct. well, now that I checked, I made a rounding error: cuba has actually 2.39 medals per 1M, not 2.38.

You are using the 2007 population of Australia for the 2004 Olympics. Thats 3 years ago and the population of Australia has increased nearly a million since then.

Originally posted by Esoteric
You are using the 2007 population of Australia for the 2004 Olympics. Thats 3 years ago and the population of Australia has increased nearly a million since then.

ah, you're right. with 20,100,000 (26 January 2004 - ABS) it's 2,44 and higher than in cuba.

Haha, always fun to go back and read a drunken rant I posted the night before.

Glad it pi$$ed some people off 😛

I think the point was missed though, it was somewhere in the original post.......... i think 😵

Originally posted by PocketKings
See, the problem here is that Europe thinks of itself as Europe the continent, and not as the individual countries that are Europe. Are these people making it a Europe (continent) vs. USA (country)? Or is it their country vs the USA? If they want to make it a continent battle than they should say Europe vs. North America. If North America could make an A s in sports. Maybe a forum Mod could take care of that for me please. I'm going to bed 🙂

Sorry PocketKings but you have fallen straight into that trap of being American and having the old American blinkers on. I’d just like to pick you up on the point where you say that a Europe vs North America football game where Europe would blast America. Agreed, and most footballing people would also agree. However you then go on to say I can say that about almost any other sport except the USA blasts Europe

Now I would agree with you there when it comes to American sports, ie NFL football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey, but that’s only 4 sports lets talk about a few other sports that are big all around the world and have huge world tournaments and see if you can still say “almost any other sport”

Start with Golf, I believe the Ryder cup which is USA v Europe has seen the Europeans blast America, what for the last 3 or 4 times???

Rugby Union, USA are no where and you would be and have been massacred by any other European elite, are you even in the world cup in September in France? (I guess we can include Rugby League in there to).

Tennis, now you have got some handy players I will give you that, however the mens tennis is dominated by a an awesome Swiss player with the exception of clay which is dominated by a Spaniard, your best men’s player went crashing out of the latest open in the first round. Womens, well the Williams sisters were there for a while, but now Davenport has gone and the Williams are not there at the top its European players again dominating the scene. I think you will find both in Federation cup and Davis cup you’ll find its European teams again winning, Russia I guess if you include it as Europe, as for a mixed Europe against usa, your blasted again.

Athletics, well that’s been covered and to be honest I don’t think you can cope with an all European team, even if you did it would hardly be blasting us.

Cricket, do you even have a side? I don’t think so and I believe you would be blasted at that too.

Cycling, well as good as Armstrong was he is a one man miracle, despite him its still Europeans that top the bill, problem with this sport is that its so drug infected.

Boxing, well you do and always have had a great array of boxers, mostly heavy or middle weight but despite that Europe are not short on decent boxers. But I don’t think you would blast a European side of all weight categories.

Motorsport, well Its one sport Im not up on and I don’t know how to compare them, F1 seems to run all over the world and I don’t see any Americans in it? Same for MotorGP or whatever the biking equiv is.

There are many other sports, winter sports and water sports, but again the field is full of talent from both sides of the ocean, but I would not say America would blast Europe in either an array of winter sports or water sports just looking at some of the main events such as the winter Olympics and Olympics where waters sports are contested.

In summary, yes usa are a good sporting nation, and you should be, you have a large pool to select from, however you are far oh so very far from dominating sports in such a way that you think, by the USA blasting Europe “almost any other sport” other than football. And no not all the best players at their respected sport go to America to play, one or two yes, but that’s indicative of all sports of many nations all over the world.

I don’t want to bash the usa for it sports and I haven’t here, I respect the usa in the sports and events that they excel in, what the problem is, is gung ho Americans that come out with all kinds of crap thinking that America is the ultimate and most incredible sporting nation on the planet, your not, and pocketKings you fell into that category by making the claim you did.

Edit: Forgot to close the bold tags!!

Originally posted by huckleberryhound
I'm afraid not. If that were the case, then surely plucky little Cuba would be the best, with a frction of the population of america, and 27 medals.



I asked how many of each country attended so we can have a ratio of winners:participants (for each country).

By your rational, surely Cuba is the best ??? NO ?

edit. population of Cuba - 2006 estimate 11,382,820

We have a winner, the best athelete in the world smoke Cigars 🙂

You're pretty set in your opinions, and i just want to make it clear that i'm not trying to personally attack anyone (not that you'd think that, but i don't want to get this into a flame fest if someone else does)

yes, per capita other countries have it--but my original argument wasn't that the average american was a better athlete than the average cuban, the argument was that the best athletes in the world live in america. Maybe i shouldn't have taken the potshot at china about having a billion more people, but if you read most of the second part of what i said, my point really wasn't the population, or the number of participants, it was which country has the best athletes in the world, which country is most likley to win a GOLD medal, which country is most likley to win ANY medal--and that country is the US of A.

Originally posted by ShaKKaXulu
You're pretty set in your opinions, and i just want to make it clear that i'm not trying to personally attack anyone (not that you'd think that, but i don't want to get this into a flame fest if someone else does)

yes, per capita other countries have it--but my original argument wasn't that the average american was a better athlete than the average cub LD medal, which country is most likley to win ANY medal--and that country is the US of A.

It was you that made the population argument, i just showed how it doesn't work. Maybe against China, but not against smaller countries.

I didn't ask you to use a dodgy argument, don't shoot the messenger.

Originally posted by huckleberryhound
It was you that made the population argument, i just showed how it doesn't work. Maybe against China, but not against smaller countries.

I didn't ask you to use a dodgy argument, don't shoot the messenger.

reread my posts man, i didn't deny that i brought population into account, but i also made a clear point that the USA is clearly the champ of the olympics no matter what way you slice it. You don't think i should be able to make two seperate arguments, but you have yourself--first you said china was the best country in the olympics, despite it clearly not being the best, then when i just so happened to bring in population you switch the argument to a medals per capita--negating SOME of my counterargument while simultaneously destroying your own orginal statement that china was superior.

editted: Which country has the most gold medals? USA. Which country has the most total medals? USA. Now that we're on the same page, explain to me how this does not logically justify my original statement of the "USA has the best athletes in the world". you don't have to agree with me, but you've got to recognize that i have at least some facts clearly supporting me.

Originally posted by huckleberryhound
2004 olympics


1 United States 35 39 29 103
2 China 32 17 14 63
3 Russia 27 27 38 92
4 Australia 17 16 16 49
5 Japan 16 9 12 37
6 Germany 14 16 18 48
7 France 11 9 13 33
8 Italy 10 11 11 32
9 South Korea 9 12 9 30
10 Great Britain 9 9 12 30
11 Cuba 9 7 11 27
12 Ukraine 9 5 9 23
13 Hungary 8 6 3 17
14 Romani ...[text shortened]... ilver/bronze/total.

Can anyone find a list of participents per country ? I'm having trouble.

I thought Chinese were too short to compete in sports!?!?

😵😵😵

Originally posted by 1WhiteKnight
Sorry PocketKings but you have fallen straight into that trap of being American and having the old American blinkers on. I’d just like to pick you up on the point where you say that a Europe vs North America football game where Europe would blast America. Agreed, and most footballing people would also agree. However you then go on to say [b] I can say t ...[text shortened]... ou fell into that category by making the claim you did.

Edit: Forgot to close the bold tags!!

Well, I agree with you on the first statement you bolded, I should not have put that in there, it was completely going against my entire point, and I was well into my case of lager 😉

But the rest is pretty valid. The point I'm making is many people bash american sports here and we retaliate with the soccer and cricket bashing. It should all be respected because professional sports teams are paid and contracted positions, and you don't have to be from the country that the team you are playing for is in. I'm not talking about Olympics at all, thats much different. This is most evident in the usa, therefore, criticizing american sport is often critizizing some of your own people. And when I criticize soccer and cricket, I'm criticizing some of my own people.

You are very wrong in one thing, I was never saying the USA is dominant in all sports, never even hinted it. Many sports are worldwide contested, and athletes from all the countries are respected. You had some very valid points my friend, but don't jump to conclusions that I fell into a trap, I didn't even go near it.

Edit - I wish you had closed the bold tags 😛

Originally posted by PocketKings
Well, I agree with you on the first statement you bolded, I should not have put that in there, it was completely going against my entire point, and I was well into my case of lager 😉

But the rest is pretty valid. The point I'm making is many people bash american sports here and we retaliate with the soccer and cricket bashing. It should all be respec ll into a trap, I didn't even go near it.

Edit - I wish you had closed the bold tags 😛

Fair reply PocketKings, except when you say something like "except the USAs blast Europe" with regards to "about almost any other sport " then the implication there is that the usa is dominante (or better for want of a simpler word) over europe in most sports, I am not sure I can interpret that statment any other way?

Don't take it personally PocketKings (Im sure you dont!! 😛 ) but Im just getting bored of a number of americans either posting crap on these boards about sport when clearly they have no idea what they are talking about or posting unfounded claims as to how great they are at sports that they are obviously not. Mostly it makes me laugh though!
😉

edit: damn and blast those bloody bold tags...!

Originally posted by 1WhiteKnight
Fair reply PocketKings, except when you say something like [b]"except the USAs blast Europe" with regards to "about almost any other sport " then the implication there is that the usa is dominante (or better for want of a simpler word) over europe in most sports, I am not sure I can interpret that statment any other way?

Don't take it pers ...[text shortened]... t. Mostly it makes me laugh though!
😉

edit: damn and blast those bloody bold tags...![/b]

At least the US fans wait until a championship has been won in a sport before they became crazed loonies fighting and destroying property. Euros only need to be in the same stadium with a rival and it becomes a drunken gang war, and that is for a league match, not even a world championship.

Originally posted by 1WhiteKnight
Fair reply PocketKings, except when you say something like [b]"except the USAs blast Europe" with regards to "about almost any other sport " then the implication there is that the usa is dominante (or better for want of a simpler word) over europe in most sports, I am not sure I can interpret that statment any other way?

Don't take it pers ...[text shortened]... t. Mostly it makes me laugh though!
😉

edit: damn and blast those bloody bold tags...![/b]

I didn't take it personally, it was my intention to say something the complete opposite of the way you took. Don't let my one sentence speak for the whole post 🙂