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the women won 61 of the 121 total medals that the US won, about 50.5%
the men won 55 medals, or about 45.5%
mixed teams (equestrian & tennis) won another 5 medals
the golds offered a larger disparity, with the women winning 27 of the 46 gold medals or about 58.7%
those 27 medals are more than any other country's gold tally with the exception of GB which also had 27
The other thing to consider is that China's poor performance has a couple factors.
1) The country is getting richer and taking a longshot on rigorous sports training instead of getting an education is no longer as appealing to Chinese families.
2) A lot of their medal shortage was in gymnastics where they had a very young and inexperienced team. This could be a fluke OR.....
3) Next games in in Tokyo and given regional rivalries and politics there is talk that China may have taken a chance (and failed) that they could field a younger team this year to get experience with an eye on dominating at the Tokyo games in order to bolster regional prestige on the home court of their biggest neighboring rival.
Can you source your claims? I've heard that one coming out of Russia "media" (lol) in an attempt to deflect from their massive cheating scandal.
The idea that the Soviet program with significant KGB involvement and the Chinese program wouldn't be able to get the same drugs via espionage etc. is hilarious since they've managed to heist just about everything else over the years.
Second, they do bust American athletes for these things which then would make you have to wonder why they weren't using the magic secret undetectable drugs they allegedly have?
It's true that Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones were not caught until someone else exposed them.
I think almost ALL professional athletes use something to enhance their performance. The only difference is whether they are legal (yet) and detectable.
It's true that Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones were not caught until someone else exposed them.
I think almost ALL professional athletes use something to enhance their performance. The only difference is whether they are legal (yet) and detectable.
It was back in the 1920s when a Tour de France cyclist commented to a reporter, "You don't think we do this on spring water do you?"
It's true that Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones were not caught until someone else exposed them.
I think almost ALL professional athletes use something to enhance their performance. The only difference is whether they are legal (yet) and detectable.
Actually no, Jones tested positive for EPO in 2006. Prior to that she skipped a drug test and got a 4 year ban but Johnny Cochrane lawyered her out of it.
There are some private companies that helped athletes cheat like BALCO but it's not widespread throughout US athletics and those same drugs are available world-wide.
Furthermore, Jones got in trouble and investigated by the feds over the whole thing....not helped by the feds to cover it up like in Russia.
Landis, Montgomery, Jones hubby all got busted eventually.
We can both obviously agree that there is a lot of cheating in sports, I'm only refuting that the US athletes have access to some super secret special sauce that the rest of the world doesn't have.
P.S. Some of the people I named landed in prison over check fraud or selling heroin etc. Seems odd that they got years in prison in some cases and have blown the whistle if it's a widespread US govt. program using secret stuff.
there was also an interesting premise put forth in the NYT link referencing an 8-Year swoon that hits the host country down the road as the immediate impact of bolstering the athletic programs to put on a good show for their games fades down the road. We saw that from China in Rio and with Australia following the 2000 Sydney games where their medals have gone from 58 in Sydney, to 50 in Athens, to 46 in Beijing, to 35 in London, to 29 in Rio.
We can both obviously agree that there is a lot of cheating in sports, I'm only refuting that the US athletes have access to some super secret special sauce that the rest of the world doesn't have.
P.S. Some of the people I named landed in prison over check fraud or selling heroin etc. Seems odd that they got years in prison in some cases and have blown the whistle if it's a widespread US govt. program using secret stuff.
The US programs are too varied and too internally competitive for there to be some "vast conspiracy" of all the competitive athletes in the US using secret American super-drugs that don't get out to any other countries where there is money to buy them.
Drug dealers are in it for the money, not for national pride, and chemistry can't be kept a secret.
Unfortunately, US dominates in offices and courts. US can ruin any official career. Result this- Russian team disqualified in the Paralympic Games. Unfortunately, this is a disgrace to the Olympic movement. And that incites hatred. Russian begin to hate the West.
If an athlete has violated the law and took illegal drugs, then he/she should be punished. But disqualify the whole team - it's unfair, it violates the principles of the Olympic movement.
If an athlete has violated the law and took illegal drugs, then he/she should be punished. But disqualify the whole team - it's unfair, it violates the principles of the Olympic movement.
You make it sound like a few athletes took drugs and got caught so they banned everyone.
That's not what actually happened.
They didn't catch a few athletes, they caught the entire Russian Olympics program in a systemic cheating operation. Do you or do you not agree that the "program" was caught cheating?
Unfortunately, US dominates in offices and courts. US can ruin any official career. Result this- Russian team disqualified in the Paralympic Games. Unfortunately, this is a disgrace to the Olympic movement. And that incites hatred. Russian begin to hate the West.
In case you haven't noticed the east and the south also condemned Russias state sponsored doping program.
One thing I've always admired about Russia was their toughness so show some ownership of the error.
You did it. Stop whining that you didn't and it's all a big conspiracy. The whole world sees this.
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