Do you agree that some countries are overly represented at the Olympics?

Question

As of August 20, I see that the USA has a total of 82 medals and that China has a total of 79. How come India has only 2? Yes, that number is 2! (TWO!). India is the second most populated country in the world. Over a billion people live there! Maybe we should spend a little less on fancy ceremonies and torch running and a little more on getting more athletes from some other less advantaged countries. I think that the Olympics are way too political and they are biased towards the rich countries! I would like to see better and more population based representation of world countries in the Olympics.

Answer 1

Political? Not the olympics.

It comes down to the priorities of a country. Some don't care about the olympics as much as others...they have bigger problems that need more attention.

Answer 2

Apparently, there are minimum requirements for the athletes to even compete in the Olympics.

If that particular country's athlete(s) can't meet the requirements, they can't compete.

As for spending less on ceremonies and more on athletes, that is more the responsibility of the athlete's country than it is for the global community.

The only option would be to let a certain # of athletes per event per country and let each country enter their athletes whether or not they can effectively compete.

Answer 3

If you have the money to give to a country to better their sporting ability, more power to you.  

Answer 4

The governing bodies for each sport set the qualifying standards.  Usually this involves hitting a specific performance standard, or winning points in international competition.  For whatever reason, there aren't as many Indian athletes meeting these standards.  

I suspect that the Indian culture doesn't value Olympic sports as much as others, therefore not as many of them chase the Olympic goal.   That's fine with me.  Enforced equality never improved anything.  

Answer 5

It all comes down to talent my friend. If Indian athletes don't have the talent to win more medals then that's just too bad.

Answer 6

If India is OK with its result, who are any of us to say that's wrong?

Answer 7

Well, I do not know for sure, but here is my thinking of the issue....There are trials to get to the olympics and it seems that some countries do have more athletes that win and make it through those trials to go on to the olympics. One reason I think India probably seems so under represented is probably a monetary issue. It takes money to train and make it to the ellite level in these sports and India is a developing country. People in countries such as the USA have money and other commercial sponsors to help their efforts to make it to the games. In areas like China they are communist and the government sees to sponsor various athletes to the ellite level. In additon to the money needed the athletes has to have a degree of talent before any training with be effective.