Spin: Why Is The USA So Dominant In The Olympics?

[L&HH]

The amount of funding is a big reason. Its the reason UK finished with the 1 gold in 1996, 20 years later they have 67. They put massive funding into th sports and it paid off. The level of athletes as well, you got world class athletes all over the us.

I believe your numbers are off. You compared the gold count they had in one year to the total medal count in another.

 

[J Money]

I believe your numbers are off. You compared the gold count they had in one year to the total medal count in another.

Yeah my bad it was 27 golds and 67 in total

 

[Swagnificent]

Population size is meaningless. India has about 4 times more people but it's completely absent on the medals table.
You need a combination of many things: money, size, diversity (ethnic, geographic/climate), general public interest and strong patriotism.

It's mostly population + money. China is pretty homogenous and top 3 in medals.

Diversity helps but there are enough weird sports to always win a lot of medals of you have enough money and enough people to invest in.

 

[Geek Nasty]

Let's be real. Lots of Olympic sports are rich folk past times. If you have money and time to put your kids into camps, they're going to excel. I work with a guy who can afford to send his kid to all these named basketball camps. Kid will have a serious advantage all the way up until his genetics get in the way.

Hell, even Gina Davis almost made the Olympic archery team because she can afford that high-end gear. Triathlon bicycles go for $10,000 BEFORE you set them up for racing.

 

[Kornball The Conqueror]

poitier was a garbage poster but that was a flawless execution

 

[Big Boss]