Monday, August 11, 2008

Why does China win so many gold medals?

So here are the Chinese medal tallies from the past four Olympics (in reverse chronological order, g/s/b):

32-17-14
28-16-15
16-22-16
16-22-12

The tally so far this year is 9-3-2. The disproportionate spike in gold medals is interesting because every other country with a large (>10, hence statistical) medal count has a relatively even distribution -- like China 92/96. Is China dominating relatively uncompetitive events?
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3 comments:

  1. GrobsteinAug 11, 2008, 11:42:00 PM

    Is China dominating relatively uncompetitive events?

    I read an article that suggested this was an explicit strategy of the Chinese team, and the examples seemed persuasive, but I can't find it now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ZedAug 12, 2008, 10:47:00 AM

    Thanks. Wonder if they mind that their strategy is obvious from the medal count.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlanAug 12, 2008, 3:00:00 PM

    Commies only care about the bottom line. They're glass-bottom-feeders

    ReplyDelete

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