by Sky Blue Steve-o » Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:51 am
We're not that bad - certainly not a "joke".
Look at the current medal table:
1. China (22 medals) - huge population compared to us
2. USA (27) - again, massive population, better climate for certain sports
3. South Korea (12) - I know nothing about Korea!
4. Italy (10) - similar size to us, with a better climate for many Olympic sports
5. Australia (12) - better climate and more of a sporting culture
6. Germany (6) - bigger than us
7. Japan (7) - bigger than us
8. Russia (10) - huge population
8. Great Britain (7)
We're 3rd in Western Europe, with a similar medal count to Germany and Italy. The bigger countries will always do better - they have more athletes to choose from. Plus, the vast majority of Olympic sports are fringe sports in this country, while they're massive overseas.
Considering the size of our country, and the climate compared to a lot of other countries, top 10 in the medal table is probably a pretty good effort. We will never be able to compete with the likes of USA, China and Russia. Our performance should be measured against similar sized countries such as Germany, Spain, France, Poland and Italy. We're not doing to bad compared to these.