Posted on 02/26/2006 12:49:02 PM PST by Michael81Dus
TORINO (AP) — Germany and the United States again won the most medals at a share-the-wealth Torino Olympics that featured more countries winning medals and more in double figures than ever before. Canada and Austria, among others, had their best all-time showing.
Twenty-six countries — including first-time winners Slovakia and Latvia — earned at least one medal, up from a high of 24 in 1998 and 2002. And 11 countries won at least 10 medals — the previous mark was 10 countries at Nagano in 1998. (Related item: Medal count by country)
The Germans and Americans repeated their one-two finish from Salt Lake City four years ago, although both fell short of their 2002 totals. Germany led in Torino in overall medals with 29 and golds with 11, while the Americans won 25 medals overall, nine of them gold.
U.S. officials said they were pleased with their team's performance, the nation's best for a Winter Games on foreign soil, and expressed regret about pre-Olympic projections that the Americans would match or exceed the record 34 medals of 2002.
"This has been an incredible performance," said U.S. Olympic Committee chief Jim Scherr. "It's probably our fault that it's been viewed a little less than that."
Canada was among the major success stories, bettering its record 2002 haul of 17 medals with 24 in Torino, including a Games-high five by speedskater Cindy Klassen. The team's performance lent some credibility to Canada's "Own the Podium" plan to finish No. 1 when it hosts the next Games in Vancouver in 2010.
Austria also had the best showing in its long Winter Games history with 23 medals overall, nine of them gold, despite a police raid and unannounced doping tests that targeted some of its cross-country skiers and biathletes. It was most proud of a record 14 medals in Alpine skiing, including a medal sweep in the men's slalom on Saturday.
"This is the greatest Olympics ever for us," said Alpine director Hans Pum.
Others with their best Winter Games included Sweden with 14 medals, and China and South Korea with 11 each.
The Italians, despite competing at home before zealous and imploring crowds, was shut out in high-profile Alpine skiing and won only 11 medals in all — far off their Winter Games best of 20 in Lillehammer in 1994. Yet any disappointment was erased on the final day when Giorgio di Centa won gold in the 50km cross-country race.
The Games were frustrating for Norway, even though it extended its lead in all-time winter medals. With 19 medals in Torino, Norway's overall total reached 283, but only two of the latest medals were gold; by himself, biathlon star Ole Einar Bjoerndalen had been expected to win several golds.
Estonia, by contrast, won only three medals — but all were gold, in men's and women's cross-country skiing.
Russia, with eight golds and 22 medals overall, rebounded solidly from its worst Winter Games in Salt Lake City, where it won only 13 medals and was buffeted by doping scandals. It was not quite the 25 medals that some Russian officials had projected beforehand, but good enough to merit a special flight home Monday just for the medal winners.
Slovakia won its first winter medal thanks to a brand-new Olympic sport, snowboardcross, in which Radoslav Zidek took silver. Latvia's first winter medal, a bronze, went to Martins Rubenis in luge.
There were other breakthroughs: Tanja Poutiainen gave Finland its first medal in Alpine skiing with a silver in women's giant slalom, and Shizuka Arakawa, with her elegant free skate, gave Japan its first gold medal in figure skating.
Although more countries won medals, Australia was the only one from the Southern Hemisphere, with a gold in moguls for Canadian-born Dale Begg-Smith. Thirteen nations from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean were among the 80 competing in Torino, but the all-time shutout streak for those regions continued.
Ping
Deutschland Uber Alles, eh Michael. ;)
If it´s during a fair sports competition, you shouldn´t be mocking, should you? I mean, still better than marching with our helmets (see thread about Dutch orange plastic helmets for Soccer World Cup 2006 in Germany) to our neighbour countries. ;-)
By the way, the US team is better than 2002, when you finished as third (and we as the second). Norway surprisingly wasn´t in good shape.
I really enjoyed the Olympics, especially biathlon. Shooting and cross-country is really exciting.
U.S. could've done better, and finished first:
Imagine if Kwan were able to compete, or if Bode Miller actually did....well.....anything at all. Or if the speed skaters actually fielded their best team in the relays. Or if the U.S. women bothered to show up at all for just about any non-ice-skating sport. Man, our women athletes just crumbled this time. Still, second is better than 2002!
There's always 2010!!!!
When looking at "true" medal counts for the U.S., I usually eliminate those events where the U.S. almost always does well simply because very few other countries compete in them to the same level that we do (like aerial skiing, snowboarding, and women's hockey, for example).
Winter Olympics are always more exclusive. A German newspaper wrote leaning to a Audi advertisement slogan: "Advantage through technical skills". It´s to a large extent about technics, such as the bobs, the ice skates, the skies, etc.
The Germans can thank the fact that now there are so many different Biathlon events for their win. 11 out of their 29 medals came from Biathlon alone. Take that away and frankly the Germans were a bit disappointing, especially in the Alpine events. But I guess a win is a win.
Had it not been for the X-Games events, the US did pretty dismal, although they did much better towards the end, (Bode not withstanding)
Did Bode Miller or Michael Weir win the gold medal for being the biggest jacka$$ of the Olympics?
Well, then, I hope you do the same for Germany who always win Luge and Bobsledding medals.
I thought Team USA did awesome this Olympics, and the facts back that up. If one bases everything on the success of a particular individual or sport, one is missing the "true" point of the Olympics.
And we can be glad that Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR) did so bad. Michael Greis alone made three gold medals. And of course, we would rank as 20th or so, if we hadn´t the sport promotion program of our armed forces, allowing athletes to be paid by the mil and train in the mil sports centers. More than half of our athletes are soldiers. How is it in the US? How can your athletes afford to train, they surely can´t have normal jobs.
Considering it was the best we have ever done in the winter olympics at a non-american venue, I would say Team USA kicked major ass.
Major kudos to them all!!! Was a great olympics.
Bode wanted to be the American Tomba. Except for one thing, Tomba knew how to win.
Really, we haven´t heard about a drunken B. Miller. He was a hope for the US Team, but that´s all that was covered here. I guess the doping scandal around Team Austria distracted from him. Despite the negative urine results, I´m convinced that the suspected Austrians have used blood doping.
Oh, and don´t be disappointed, all the athletes and media guys here said that the Olympics in Salt Lake City were a lot better than this. In SLC, there were cheering crowds of people at the sports events and no traffic chaos - unlike in Turino.
Who the hell cares. Another fourth year interruption of network TV [which is saying something].
I was surprised to know there was a men's division.
Deutschland Uber Alles!
I thought that the original meaning of the slogan was from the Unification of Germany. Before then, many Germans thought of themselves as Hessians, Bavarians, etc.
They were encouraged to think of themselves as "German above all! Deutschland Uber Alles!
There was nothing terribly nasty about it, until the Nazis hijacked the slogan - along with the brilliant work of Nietsche and others...
Bruce Jenner (decathlete) was supported by his wife, a waitress.
These days, the athletes who are at the highest echelons in highly-visible sports are sponsored by companies. Otherwise, I don't know. I suspect that Germany's program is more comprehensive than most other countries. It explains the high medal count, given the population.
What's really scary is how good the Canadian team was, I can't even fathom the thought they could get more medals than us four years from in Vancouver, but it's a distinct possibility.
Besides, the real games are this summer with The World Cup. Go USA!!!!
He said that the didn't care about medals and that it was "other people that want me to win medals." He was happy that he got to "experience the Turin nightlife" and that he was glad he got to "party and socialize at the olympic level." I am angry that he got his free two week European party fest on someone elses dime. He should hae to pay it back in full. We need to do better screening of these atheletes. If they don't want to represent the USA, and they aren't going to take the events seriously, then we shouldn't send them no matter how talented they are. If they only want to party at the "olympic level" we should give someone else a shot at it.
For events like cross-country skiing, you don't even have to use performance enhancing drugs, but give yourself a nice transfusion of blood into your body to greatly increase your red blood cell count. Untraceable unless you test them before the race begins.
This is what Austrians and Russians got busted for at salt lake. The doping testers would simply check the red blood cell counts of racers before the race.
Avery Brundage never would have put up with the crap when he was running the USOC. He kicked two athletes off the US team for drinking champagne on the cruise on the way to the 1936 Berlin games.
:-)
You get an A! ;-)
Company-sponsoring is fine for a few elitist athletes, when they´ve already achieved something. I´m wondering that the US concept is different, but your gold-medalist also reach more people as advertisers, so they´re more efficient.
THe home field does give you major advantage, but considering Whistler is just a 3 hour drive from the US border, I would say that the US won't be feeling like they are far from home.
I heard the same thing coming out of the Chinese for the summer olympics. They are going all out to have chinese on every podium possible, no matter what the sport.
I read the Russians and Chinese have cracked a deal that they will train at the newly constructed chinese facilities with the single goal of beating the US and making sure both countries end up with more medals.
I wish the US team good luck in Germany.
Yep, the Canadians and the Austrians were really impressive. Ok, we can imagine what was behind the success of the latter...
Unlike most European countries, U.S. Olympic athletes are not paid or supported by the government or military and must support themselves. Most have normal jobs or somehow make money through their sport and through corporate sponsorship if they are well-known. They receive some training support through the U.S. Olympic Committee (which is a privately-funded organization) but not a salary to live on. Actually, the Home Depot chain of hardware stores is always showing commercials during the Olympics bragging about how many of the Olympic athletes they employ.
Of the 211 athletes on the 2006 U.S. Olympic team, 33 work at Home Depot. The home-improvement retailer has sponsored a program through which aspiring Olympians can find work at its stores. www.usolympicteam.com
The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) devotes only 2.9 percent (1999) to 7 percent (2002) of its revenues to direct athlete support. Support levels vary by sport, but are typically reserved for athletes who have already made the U.S. team. Typical funding is $5,000 a year, which falls far short of covering athletes' competition and training costs. While the USOC funnels funds to various organizations for specific programs, the bulk of these funds do not trickle down to athletes. American athletes receive a fraction of the support that their Western European counterparts do. www.usathletictrust.org
LOL, wow, I can understand your anger now.
I love Luge. A sport where you lie on your back and wait until it's over.
I was surprised to know there was a men's division.
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ich bin a berliner' curler with a broom
They´ve done that this year, too. It lead to a five-day-ban for cross-country-athlete Eva Sachenbacher (GER), but after that, she was allowed to start. She says that she has a naturally high red blood cell count. It´s still disturbing, especially what the Italian police has found in the Austrian camp. Maybe 20% or so of all athletes are doped.
Vielen vielen Dank!
Thanks. That makes sense for bigger countries. I´d like to see this used by our companies, it would show some kind of patriotism. But then, your companies reach many more consumers in their advertising than ours, and we both pay for our athletes - either through products or through taxes.
My teachers told me not to thank them for MY performance. Be proud, YOU showed that you have the knowledge, not me. ;-)
For years the US has been an afterthought in Winter Sports. Now we are second in the Medal totals with the most medals ever for a US team in an Olympics outside the US.
Congratulations, Michael.
I lived in Germany (Munich 1952-1958). (yep, I'm old) The Olympic spirit lives large there. If the USA couldn't come in first, I'm glad Germany did.
Beautiful country, wonderful people.
Yeah, he is definitely a piece of work :)
Editor's note: Rutland resident Marci Francis, a member of the U.S. National skeleton team, will file periodically from Turin, Italy during the Olympic Games.
Last night it was utter chaos at the "Irish Igloo," a bar in Sestriere, Italy, that is honored with the designation of being the official "U.S. Ski Team House."
It is a favorite hangout for the athletes and less-glam crowd, except for the Irish Team, who protest going there because being Irish doesn't qualify them as VIPs. No matter how many times they refer to the sign "Irish Igloo" above the door and point to the Irish flag on the jackets, they are still left to stand in line with the rest of us unlucky charms.
On this particular night, the line was longer than ever, and as I stood watching Tom Green interview a U.S. ski team member, none other than Bode Miller marched quickly out the door with a friend in tow. Not far from the bar now, Miller stood talking with the friend in the street. Promising my sisters a picture if I saw him, I decided to seize the opportunity.
Hoping to not draw attention to myself or Miller, I nonchalantly approached them and said, "Excuse me, would you mind? I promised my sisters that if I saw you I would get a picture with you."
Miller's friend, obviously on the defensive front-line of the Miller Madness, took my camera, and said "Sure, I'll take a picture of you" and was about to take a picture of just me, when Miller stopped him with his reply:
"Would I mind? Would I mind? Do you know how many (expletive) pictures I just took in there? That's all anybody wants is their picture with me. I must have taken at least a hundred pictures just now!"
By now, boisterous Bode had commanded a crowd. In an attempt to pacify the situation, I replied, "I know, I understand it must be tough, but I only asked for one picture."
Miller: "This sucks, I can't go anywhere without people hounding me for my picture. That's all everyone wants — just one picture. Do you know what I think? I think every picture people take of me takes a piece of my soul."
Trying not to laugh, I replied "Really." Instead of a picture, now I was getting "Deep Thoughts by Bode Miller", which I must admit got me thinking, too.
"You know, my husband was an Olympic medalist in speed skating, and he takes pictures with people all the time," I said, trying to find some common ground with Miller.
"Well, speed skating doesn't get one hundredth of the attention that we do," he replied sarcastically.
Wow, I thought to myself. He seems to be as good at math as he has been about performing during these Games.
"Actually, speed skating is very popular here in Europe," I said, a little bit defensive. "You know, I can't believe I wanted my picture with you to begin with."
As I took my camera and began to walk away, I cringed as a group of unsuspecting picture-seekers approached Miller with the same request.
Miller's tangent ensued. "Are you (expletive) crazy? No, I'm not taking a picture with you. I just told her I wouldn't take a picture, and she's cute!"
Determined to get the last word in, I turned and shouted back, "And American, you (expletive)."
Perhaps Miller should have thought about the sanctity of his soul before he signed major endorsement deals with Nike and Barilla, and appeared on countless magazine covers and television shows prior to the Games.
Miller himself had been one of the major driving forces behind the mania that now follows him, yet seems unwilling to accept the responsibility of becoming a household name. Before long, his 15 minutes of fame will wane, and he too will find himself waiting in the back of the line, behind me, at the Irish Igloo.
It was from the sportspage of the Rutland Herald
Very nice words, herzlichen Dank.
Nice of NBC to show the biathlon, for once. The finish of the Men's Pursuit was awesome, the announcer nearly lost his voice!
This medal count shows what the US does with an absence of black athletes. We depend heavily on black athletes in the summer games and win more medals. With the emphasis on speed, it seems there would be more than one black speed skater on the US team. Incidentally, without our snowboarders, we wouldn't have such a healthy medal count, but the rest of the world will have caught up with our boarders in four years.
If you deflate the medal count by population, the U.S. comes in number 21 (after Norway, Austria, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Croatia, Netherlands, Latvia, Czech Republic, Germany, South Korea, Slovakia, Italy, France, Russia, Bulgaria, Australia, and Belarus.
A more sophisticated ranking model would require two adjustments to the simple population-deflated model: (1) it would weight medals, say giving 3 points for a gold medal, 2 for a silver, and 1 for a bronze (rather than weighting them equally) and (2) it would deflate the weighted count by the square root of population (for reasons that statistically inclined readers will immediately understand and nonstatistically inclined readers will not be interested in reading a post long enough to explain). In the sophisticated weighted model, the U.S. comes 13th (after Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Netherlands, South Korea, Russia, and Croatia.
No matter how you slice it, Norway and Austria are the big winners, and the U.S. is pretty far down the list. We have no cause for gloating.
: (
That is by far the most inane measure of America's 2006 success (or failure) I have seen.
Well, I don't think anyone's "gloating". We're simply happy that the U.S. team did as well as they did. Bringing population into it isn't as relevant as it may seem at first glance. First of all, teams with higher populations aren't allowed to enter more competitors in each competition than other countries. Each country is limited as to how many athletes they can enter. Finding 3 good athletes among a population of 200 million or 50 million is not as different as it may seem. Second, if the argument is that there is a bigger "talent pool" because of the larger population you have to take into account the kind of talent pool and the relative popularity and participation in certain sports. Sports like biathlon and cross-country skiing are huge in certain European countries and virtually unknown in the U.S. as competitive sports. Thus the available talent pool for those sports is actually larger in some countries with smaller total populations. Despite Germany's smaller population there are 3 times as many Bobsled runs in Germany as in the U.S.
The fact is that the U.S. has never done particularly well in the Winter Olympics and most of the sports are not as well-known or practiced in the U.S. as in some other countries. The addition of sports like snowboarding that are more popular in the U.S. has helped a little and contributed greatly to the U.S. medal count this year and in 2002.
I don't think total population can be used as a yardstick given the other variables (available facilities, popularity of certain sports, available talent pool for a particular sport, limits on athlete entries...)
bitte
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.