Beijing Olympic Medals: Most World Sharing Ever
August 24, 2008
First-time Olympic host China topped the gold-medal chart with one of the most dominating and diverse performances ever. But the United States, Britain and other nations also celebrated, as Olympic medals were spread out to more winning nations than in any other Olympic Games.
China’s haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. China won medals in 25 different sports, including its first ever in sailing, beach volleyball and field hockey.
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The United States trailed well behind the Chinese in golds with 36, the first time since 1992 it didn’t lead the category. But the Americans did break their own mark for total medals in a non-boycotted Olympics; they won 110 in all, two more than their previous high set in 1992 and 10 ahead of China’s overall tally this year.
The next Summer Olympic host, Britain in 2012, also had its best Olympics in a century with 19 gold medals — good for fourth place behind the Russians.
A record 87 nations won medals making it the most world-sharing Olympics ever, seven more than the previous high in Sydney in 2000. A dozen nations won either their first-ever gold medal or first medal of any color. South Korea won its first gold in swimming. Mongolia won its first gold in judo.
The IOC said 43 world records and 132 Olympic records were broken in China.
Fears about pollution evaporated as blue skies finally broke through the haze. Criticism of China’s human rights record took a backseat as two athletes redefined sporting excellence.
American Michael Phelps swam into the record books by winning an astonishing eight gold medals in the futuristic Water Cube. On the track, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt captivated the crowds with three sprint gold medals, all in world record times.
The Beijing Games was the most viewed in the Olympics’ 112-year history, with audience figures up between 20 and 30 percent on 2004 levels.
“The Beijing Games look set to become the biggest broadcasted event in Olympic history,” IOC director of TV and marketing services Timo Lumme told reporters. “Ratings are higher than for any Olympics before.”
Lumme said use of internet broadcasting has been a major success, with NBColympics.com alone recording 30 times more video views than in Athens, viewing more than 22 million clips.
“In China alone more than 102 million people watched the Games live on line,” Lumme said. Many more watched recorded segments.
The IOC’s own website had recorded more visits in the first week of the Beijing Games than throughout all of the Athens Olympics.
Rogge told reporters on Sunday the IOC could not force change on a state “or solve all the ills of the world,” but that the Games had promoted a heightened awareness of the environment in China and left an array of venues to nurture future champions.
If there was a prominent loser at the games, it was Russia, whose team was deprived of 10 athletes due to doping accusations. The Russians finished a distant third in both gold medals, with 23, and overall medals with 72 — down from 27 and 92 four years ago in Athens. Germany and Japan also fared noticeably worse than in Athens.
Still, the big news out of this Olympics was recognition of China’s arrival as the dominant Summer Olympics power.
“China has been systematically targeting every single available medal, and we’re going to have to do that in the future,” said U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth.
“The resources that they put toward their Olympic team and the population base and the dedication is fantastic,” he said. “It’s much more difficult for the rest of the world to compete, but that’s the way it should be.”
- Associated Press contributed to this story.
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3 Responses to “Beijing Olympic Medals: Most World Sharing Ever”
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The list of the top 10 medal-getters reads like the who’s-who among the most politically and economically powerful nations in the world.
The orthodox ranking, which counts the golds first, has numbers 1-5: China, USA, Russia, UK and Germany. 4 out of the these 5 are members of the UN Security Council. Germany, of course, is the most dominant member of the EU.
Numbers 6-10, Australia, Korea, Japan, Italy and France, also are all first-tier or second tier world powers. Together the 10 nations represent the vast bulk of world’s economic, political and military power.
Athletics is more than just brawns; it’s about money and power.
Correction: I wrote on the above post,
“4 out of the these 5 are members of the UN Security Council.”;
I meant to write, “4 out of the these 5 are Permanent Members of the UN Security Council.”
“AsianPresident”:
Whoever you are or may be.
Why so coy?
Why so reluctant to come out from behind your pseudonym?
What ARE you afraid of?
Just, exactly, what are your bona fides? Your living credentials?
Apparently, you have wearied of the harpstring you harp on about Asians hating blacks.
The above seems to refer to the harpstring that equates “arms” and “wealth” and “power” with “truth” and “honor” and “decency.”
Well, I have news for you.
Your syllogixm literally sucks. as in sorry=ass, like your proponents in the Beltway and in that inner sanctum sanctorum in the Pentagon.
How much more patience do you demand of the rest of us?
Your sorry-ass bumblings in Iraq, and now Afghanistan, weill redound to the discredit of this nation and its peoples, some of whom are smarter than you and stronger, mentally and morallfy, than you.
And, sad to relate, much more decent in beliefs.
Take your medals and your flags and your insufferable “superiority” and SHOVE it, baby, where the sun don’t shine.
That is, unless you enjoy the process, in which case, may I wish you a long, unhappy, and unfulfilled life, full of your own “trasonaous,” to self and all that is, toxic and COUNTERproductive actions.
Frank Eng
P.S.: And whilst the Obama may well be just one more incarnation of Tweedle Dee Dee to Tweedle Dee Dum(b), the bottom-line fact remains: he’s better than either Billary OR McCain, not that that would prove a feather in ANY cap, Yankee or otherwise. And, given the chance, he may also prove to be at least some of what he claims to be.