General

Team Golds Not Properly Counted at Olympics

Aug 26, 2008, 2:30 PM UTC

One final thought on the Olympics (we promise ... maybe) from Sporting News basketball columnist Mike DeCourcy.

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â†µOne by one, each member of Team USA was awarded his gold medal. The International Olympic Committee folks didn’t stop dishing out the honors until 12 players had been decorated.â†µâ†µAccording to the official unofficial medal counts that we saw published at the close of the 2008 Olympic Games, however, the men’s basketball team apparently won a single gold medal.â†µ

â†µâ†µChina can count gold medals however it likes, but don’t be fooled by such bogus statistics. There were 12 players on the stand when the U.S. women’s basketball team celebrated its gold medal, nine when the U.S. rowing team won the women’s eights – gotta count the coxswain -- and a whopping 18 after the women’s soccer team defeated Brazil in their championship game. The 4X400-meter relays teams on the track: four each. Both of the Williams sisters left with a gold medal for their women’s doubles title in tennis.â†µ

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â†µAll told, 100 American athletes were awarded 126 gold medals – 53 more than any other country could claim. China, for all the crowing about its golden superiority, actually had 64 athletes earn 73 gold medals. â†µ

â†µâ†µIf we’re going to have these medals tables, there ought to be some honesty in the way the numbers are computed.â†µ

â†µâ†µIt is certainly reasonable to consider the U.S basketball team to have won 12 golds rather than one. The basketball tournament requires a team to play eight games that last two hours each. Thus it requires roughly 16 hours of competition from a group of 12 players to secure that championship. How can all that be equated to a single parallel bars routine that takes maybe two minutes to complete?â†µ

â†µâ†µThe statement America made at the Olympics, the statement everyone seems to be missing, is how precious the team concept is to the athletes this nation produces. Americans medaled in nearly every team sport they entered (unless you care to count synchronized swimming) – but also, in sports generally involving individuals, the relay races in track and swimming. Michael Phelps never was more excited than when he could share another victory with a relay teammate. The only U.S. teams that went home without hardware were women’s field hockey and the men’s soccer. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe importance of team was most obvious in the men’s basketball gold, where a group of NBA superstars did what so many believed to be impossible: set aside their egos and embraced the importance of playing for each other and the success of their team. Each of the 12 members of that team departed the Games with a gold medal. Every one counted.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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