Olympic Medal Counts and other stories from the games

According to the Official Olympic Gold medal count, China has a huge lead on the United States in the number of Gold medals at 22-10. Of those ten medals, Phelps as five. The United States has had Olympic medal(both Gold and Total) supremacy forever but now they might be dethroned. Many analysts say that while the total medal count will still be in the United States’s favor, the Gold medal count will be in China’s favor. Chinese sites and USA sites also track the Olympics differently with USA sites paying attention to total medals more while Chinese sites only care for Golds. I personally think there should be a point system where Golds are three points, silvers are two points, and bronze is one point.

Most Americans are fine with the results so far and look forward to track and field events where America traditionally dominates but some are sour about the results. Those have pointed to China’s state-run system churning out athletes and who put victory above all else. Others have commented about China’s lack of freedoms and that how any nation who boasts so many powerful athletes should have freedom of speech and expression(I know the two have nothing to do with each other, but people must find excuses). Many have also said that the state rakes the countryside and recruits potential athletes and forces the Kids to become athletes against the will of their parents.
This last point is a very serious accusation so let me clear it up. Yes, the state does indeed push recruits extremely hard but they do not always recruit kids from the time they are three and they won’t do it against the wishes of parents or kids. Most of the athletes come from the countryside where it is impoverished. Being drawn into the sports program is sometimes the best way out of being impoverished so people agree with open arms. Also many of the Athletes are recruited in the later years of elementary school, not from the time they are three. Honestly most of the complaints are just the whining of sore losers. China has performed well at the Olympics because they’ve worked harder than anyone else and will continue to dominate unless other countries step up to the plate.

However, China has not done everything right, there are two things in particular that I will mention that I am unhappy about.

The first is the girl at the opening ceremony. They dubbed one girl’s voice over another one that lip-sung at the real ceremony. Their reasoning for this was that the girl whose voice they used was not cute enough and the cute girl’s voice was not good enough. Now one has to wonder why out of all the little girls in China, they could not find one that looks good and can sing. It will be damaging not only to the state but to the girls as well. How would you like to be remembered as the girl who couldn’t sing or the girl who didn’t look cute enough? It has to be demoralizing regardless of which one you are.

The second one is the age of the Chinese girls on the gymnastics team. The rule is that all gymnastics athletes must be at least 16 to compete. But looking at those girls, some of them cannot possibly be 16. Even Chinese state reports have them listed at 14 just a few months ago. The Chinese were able to produce passports that said they were sixteen but passports can be faked. Just looking at them I don’t believe it. I don’t see why they can’t do bone-marrow tests which is a much better test that can’t be faked.

In conclusion, Beijing has been a pretty good games but there will always been a few black spots that it won’t be able to shake.