The Olympic medal count - what does it say?

[NMH]

I'm not sure if this is barking up a wrong tree, but I was wondering;

Drugs are now known, tested for, banned and the punishments harsh.
I think we can assume that almost NO athletes will take the risk of getting caught doing drugs to enhance Olympic performances now.

Russia now struggle to beat lowly Great Britain to third place.

Okay, so Russia are now a smaller entity , but those weightlifters were using stuff for sure. For decades now, we have to surely suspect that whole events and medals were won or lost according to drug enhancements.

Is that a harsh assessment?

 

[Happy Seagull]

Racist

 

[Questions]

I'm not sure if this is barking up a wrong tree, but I was wondering;

Drugs are now known, tested for, banned and the punishments harsh.
I think we can assume that almost NO athletes will take the risk of getting caught doing drugs to enhance Olympic performances now.

Russia now struggle to beat lowly Great Britain to third place.

Okay, so Russia are now a smaller entity , but those weightlifters were using stuff for sure. For decades now, we have to surely suspect that whole events and medals were won or lost according to drug enhancements.

Is that a harsh assessment?

Drugist.

 

[NMH]

Racist

Oh....the shame

 

[NMH]

Drugist.

I'm going to go smoke me a fat one, and think about what you have said

 

[chez]

I'm not sure if this is barking up a wrong tree, but I was wondering;

Drugs are now known, tested for, banned and the punishments harsh.
I think we can assume that almost NO athletes will take the risk of getting caught doing drugs to enhance Olympic performances now.

Russia now struggle to beat lowly Great Britain to third place.

Okay, so Russia are now a smaller entity , but those weightlifters were using stuff for sure. For decades now, we have to surely suspect that whole events and medals were won or lost according to drug enhancements.

Is that a harsh assessment?

at the replies so far!!

I do believe you have a point though!!

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I assumed Russia's smaller medal count was due to the rise of China?

 

[Franks Wild Years]

That the use of lottery money to fund training programs was a good idea ?

 

[Mackenzie]

Is Russia's medal count that different if you were to add all of the former states medals to its total....Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan etc

 

[fatbadger]

Leaving aside the fact that, strictly speaking, Russia as it now is (ie the Russian Federation) is actually larger than Russia as it was in the time of the Soviet Union (ie when it was the Russian SSR, a part of the USSR), the medal count means nothing. The total medal count for the states of the former Soviet Union is:

gold 43
silver 45
bronze 83

total 171

This would put the Soviet Union 2nd in the table according to the gold-silver-bronze counting system (behind China), and 1st (by miles) in the table according to total medals - well ahead of the USA in both, and a long, long way ahead of Britain.

So, the position of Russia in the medals table tells us nothing.

 

[Gyuribá]

We're in the 21th place and everyone shouts here it's a shame...

Think about it, a country with 10 million residents...

 

[perth seagull]

The Olympics were always more interesting when the USSR (and East Germany) were around, but I am just glad to see China break the USA's recent stranglehold at the top of the gold medal count.

 

[Pavilionaire]

What the medal table shows is that France and Italy are SHIT. Lottery cash is the way to go!

 

[Boris Yeltsin]

Hasn't it been suggested that the EU put in an Olympic team wearing EU colours...

http://euobserver.com/9/26636/?rk=1

 

[User removed 4]

Leaving aside the fact that, strictly speaking, Russia as it now is (ie the Russian Federation) is actually larger than Russia as it was in the time of the Soviet Union (ie when it was the Russian SSR, a part of the USSR), the medal count means nothing. The total medal count for the states of the former Soviet Union is:

gold 43
silver 45
bronze 83

total 171

This would put the Soviet Union 2nd in the table according to the gold-silver-bronze counting system (behind China), and 1st (by miles) in the table according to total medals - well ahead of the USA in both, and a long, long way ahead of Britain.

So, the position of Russia in the medals table tells us nothing.

but the ussr is now defunct, kaput , it is no more , using your rationale then we could surely start adding the republic of ireland and parts of the old empire to our medal total.

 

[Superphil]

Of course, we have had the lottery money, perhaps they have developed more sophisticated drugs and masking agents with all the money they had. Thus allowing team GB the chance to bung up on steriods and Nandralone, safe in the knowledge they wouldn't get caught.

 

[nwgull]

I'm not sure if this is barking up a wrong tree, but I was wondering;

Drugs are now known, tested for, banned and the punishments harsh.
I think we can assume that almost NO athletes will take the risk of getting caught doing drugs to enhance Olympic performances now.

I'd love to think that this was true, but I'm afraid it's likely that loads of athletes (particularly track and field) have used performance enhancing drugs to train for these games.

 

[fatbadger]

but the ussr is now defunct, kaput , it is no more , using your rationale then we could surely start adding the republic of ireland and parts of the old empire to our medal total.

No, that's not what I am saying. I am pointing out the absurdity of NMH's original comparison of the Soviet Union's and Russia's medals hauls - hence my point that the analysis tells us nothing.