Olympics recap

I enjoyed the Olympics a little more than I anticipated. Here's my highlights:

1. Seeing countries win their first Gold Medal. Ten countries in all won their first medal. Also Iran had their first female Gold medalist.

2. The sportsmanship shown by Nikki Hamblin (NZ) and Abbey D'Agostino (USA) during the 5000m. Nikki was also awarded the fair play medal. 

3. Michael Phelps (5), Katie Ledecky (4) and Simone Biles (4), who won the most Gold medals of any athlete at these games . 

4. Kyle Chalmers winning the 100 freestyle. He swam a PB each time he jumped into the pool. Perhaps a sign that Australian swimmers may be more successful if less pressure / expectation was put on them. 

5. Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak's tie for Gold in the 100 Freestyle. Simone is the first African American to win a swimming Gold,  I don't think you can understate the impact of her winning that race. Penny Oleksiak won four medals, the most by any Canadian swimmer, and was also Canada's first swimmer to win a Gold medal since 1992 (in Barcelona)

6. Usain Bolt, not just for his results, but equally his manner of his performances.

7. Mo Farah going back-to-back in the 5,000 and 10,000. Especially seeing he won the 10,000 after having a fall during the race. 

8. Both the Australian and Fijian Seven's teams winning the tournaments. Australia were raging favourites going into the tournament and didn't disappoint, but the Fijian's win in the final and the images after the whistle will live long in the memory.  

9. The Refugee team marching in the Opening Ceremony. The team won one gold and one bronze medal. Another magical moments was the Syrian swimmer who won her 100 freestyle heat.  

10. I love surprise medalists, and Eliza McCartney winning the Bronze Medal in the Pole Vault and Chloe Esposito winning the Modern Pentathlon certainly count there. 

Bonus: Japan's wrestler, Kaori Icho, who is the first female athlete to win Gold Medals at four consecutive Olympic games.

Aside one: NZ won their 100th Gold Medal and the US their 1,000th Gold Medals during these games. 

It is also New Zealand's most successful games in history. Another highlight was Zane Robertson breaking a 39 year old New Zealand national record for the 5,000m by eight seconds.

Aside two: I feel incredibly privileged to have witness both Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. Their performances have been out of this word, and I doubt I'll see their likes again. 

Aside three: It's certainly been interesting looking/reading the recriminations about the Australian's performance.

Can totally say now, that I'm looking forward to the Tokyo games in another four years, and wondering who will fill the void left by those two great athletes.  

Some links..

I've been catching up with Google reader tonight.

:: Another piece about adjusting medal tallies. [via The Guardian]

:: Punditry .. or prayer [via The Guardian]

:: Fallen Stars.. [via the NYT]

:: Obama accepts the Demorcatic nomination [via the NYT]

Alternative Olympic Medal Tallies

So, heres' the current 2008 Olympic Medal Tally (via SMH). Interesting note that New York Times Medal table list countries by medal's won.

I'm quite interested in the adjusted medal tables. Here's two alternative tallies:

:: via Andrew Starr which ranks according to the number of medals won per 10 million of population.

:: the second, ranks by points (Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Bronze = 1) divided by Population (in millions)

I'm keen to see one adjusted by GDP (or by average per cent of GDP spent on sport). Here's the final GDP-Adjusted table from Athens 2004.

Olympics..

I watched a little bit of the Olympics (I've probably read more than I've seen), but I quite liked these pieces from the mainland (c/o the NZ Herald).

:: If all else fails, join Australia - this one was published last week, before NZ had won any medals.

:: Whatever happened to winner-take-all?

:: And as you can see, TV coverage is the same the world over ;-)

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More on the Olympics

Another article on the Olympics and activism in the SMH today.

Bashing Beijing: the shame game Olympics.

Recently I've been reading ...

… a bit about the Olympics, and the ‘b’ word. (That’s ‘boycott’ by the way)

I have to admit that I am moving towards a position of advocating ‘some-sort-of- boycott’; not only because of the recent developments in Tibet but also the Chinese role in Darfur.

Also consider,
A number of the arguments often used against such a move, are actually arguments in favour of such a move. (see Greg Baum’s article in The Age, referencing this article by Anne Applebaum)

when China won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games seven years ago, Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organising committee and the then Beijing city mayor, told the International Olympic Committee: 'If Beijing wins its bid to host the Olympic Games, it will be conducive to China's economic and social progress; at the same time, it will also make further progress on the promotion of human rights.'

Wang Wei secretary-general of the Beijing 2008 Olympic bid committee, backed him up: 'We will grant full freedom of the press to the journalists coming to China; they will be able to visit Beijing and other Chinese cities and cover any news event before and during the Olympic Games. We will also allow demonstrations.'

Four months before the Games begin, those promises look shattered. China's human-rights record remains poor. Environmental, trade union and human-rights activists suffer house arrest or imprisonment, only tried under the catch-all charge of 'subverting state power'. This so-called crime saw human-rights campaigner Yang Chunlin condemned to five years' imprisonment last week. China has seen little progress towards more freedom of expression; the country executes more people and arrests more journalists than the rest of the world combined. It routinely blocks foreign news to which the state objects and censors the internet. The conditions that existed in 2001 have not improved at all; in many ways, they have worsened. [The Guardian]

The below comment from Applebaum also intrigued me:
Perhaps, the question we should now be asking Is what would an boycott look like – some European leaders have already indicated that they will not attend the opening ceremony, and it would not be a stretch for athletes to do likewise.

the modern Olympics were set up with a political purpose: to promote international peace by encouraging healthy competition between nations. Hence the emphasis on national teams instead of individual competitors; hence the opening and closing ceremonies—since copied by other sporting events—as well as the national flags and national anthems.

The Germany water polo team is going to wear orange robes to show solidarity with the Tibetan monks. The New York Times has a piece about decisions some American athletes are making.

… another bit from Kristof in the New York Times,
His Wikipedia of hope article was just an inspiring read.

… a April fools prank
Maybe not the best, but I thought it was quite good

On the US Election.

Senator Barack Obama’s speech after the Feb. 12 primaries. There's just something that grabs me about his fresh and optimistic idealism.

Kristof [NYT] on the dynastic question.

Beijing 2008

The 'Genocide' Olympics. [NYT]

[Speilberg follows his conscience]

Olympics

I was talking to some colleagues at work this week, about having an interest in an adjusted medal table. I would like to have adjusted the medal table for population, but also for % of GDP spent on sport.

For those of you who want an alternative medal tally.