If You Ain’t First, You’re Last : 2008 Olympic Edition
Aug. 21, 2008 @ 2:28 p.m. by jlongBy J. Long
That Ricky Bobby.
If you ain’t first, you’re last.
This is one of the sayings from my favorite Will Ferrell movie, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” that is in the book of quotes that I keep.
I thought I’d bring this up because as I’m watching the Olympics, it’s amazing to me just how many gold medals that China has won. Though as of 2 p.m. today the medal overall medal count is USA 95 (G 29, S34, B32), China 83 G 45, S 15, B 22) and Russia 51(G 16, S 16, B 19).
I find it amazing that China has 45 gold medals compared to the United States’ 29.
There was a debate about what’s more important having more golds or finishing with more overall medals. I’m all about being well-balanced so you would think that would leave me to say overall medal count. Yet, what the Chinese athletes are doing is really telling. The record for the most golds in a non-boycotted Olympics is 75 by the U.S. in 1904. The most overall is 83 by the U.S. in the 1984 games that was boycotted by Russia and a host of other countries.
I watched a HBO Real Sports segment about how the young athletes in China trained and I was floored at how intense it was. They went-in while participating in their respective sports. It was kinda of scary. Reminded me a little of how the Russian was training in Rocky IV. Like losing isn’t an option.
In China, its pretty evident that they live by the Ricky Bobby philosophy. So which do you believe is more important?
August 21st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
It is pretty amazing that they’re winning so many golds, but when you really analyze what they’re winning gold medals in, I think it diminishes it a bit.
China has won the following Gold medals:
Shooting- 5 gold medals…frickin’ 5 medals for pulling a trigger. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Chris Paul and the rest of the Men’s USA basketball roster can add how many golds to the medal count? ONE. So 12 of the best athletes on the planet in my opinion can only add 1 medal to this count while dudes shooting at targets can win 5…
Oh they also won a gold for Archery…SWEET. 3 gold medals in Badminton…I love me some Badminton and respect what they do, but c’mon. Ping Pong…I mean Table tennis has given the Chinese 2 more gold medals. And don’t forget trampoline; I watched it a bit, just enough to know that it was yet another sport tailored for little people, and China has billions of ‘em…add two more gold medals on the tramp. We all know the Chinese dominance in Diving, they’ve won 7 gold medals jumping into water.
I’ll give props to the Chinese for 8 weightlifting gold medals, but I’d bet you every dollar in my bank account that they had some dudes and chicks on some banned substances. Gymnastics…I actually like the gymnastics, but again, another sport for small people, add 9 golds. Rowing, Fencing, Judo, Sailing, Swimming, Taekwondo, and Wrestling all contributed 1 gold medal each to the tally.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just being a typical arrogant football loving american, but the best male athletes in the U.S. outside of the men’s basketball team are nowhere near Beijing. They’re in the NBA and the NFL, and our best baseball players are obviously in pennant races in the MLB.
And now the olympic’s aren’t going to include softball and baseball…maybe in their place they can add skydiving or poker.
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August 21st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
They took softball and baseball out and I know they added BMX bicycle racing but I don’t know what other exciting sport they added.
Maybe they might add coed kickball or tether ball that would be real fun to watch.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
BMX bicycle racing but no more softball or baseball? Don’t even try to explain or defend that.
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August 25th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Good analysis, TFL. And I think just about anyone would agree that there were some rather questionable judges’ ratings in those sports where the scores include some subjectivity — many of which favored the Chinese.
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