Medal counts in Judged Events: Is there any explanation besides CHEATING?

Question

I've been looking over the medal counts, and I observed something disturbing about the medal counts for judged events, ones which are scored subjectively by IOC judges, which have always had problems with corruption and bribery.

I'm wondering why the following can be observed in the medal counts for the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

USA has won 7/72 medals in judged events (10%), but

China has won 25/67 medals in judged events (37%)??

If you look at gold medal tallies, this trend gets worse:

USA has won only 1/22 gold medals in judged events (5%), but

CHINA has won 21/39 gold medals in judged events (54%)??

I did see 3 of the JUDGED events where China won gold (in gymnastics), and they would have not placed higher than 3rd (and that's being gracious) if the judging was not completely corrupt.

Why are the Olympics so susceptible to corruption except when held in USA, Canada, Australia or Western Europe? Is it just a cultural issue, because only these areas are unwilling to resort to cheating to show the world they are superior?

 

Answer 1

wow, I wondered about that but you know what would be better, if you can actually find those percentage in the last 2 olympics before hand and compare them. Also it seems in the recent years in judging, countries that are holding the olympics seemed to be judged higher scores all of a sudden  in world championships the year before the Olympics are being held in their countries. Seen it in figure skating, synchronized swimming, gymnastics, etc where these athletes gain momentum at least a year before the Olympics in their country.

China is a communist country. What do you expect? Really, China is trying really hard because they want to be categorized as one of the big powers such as U.S., Japan, and 6 others I can't remember the order and they are trying to do it through the Olympic games.

Look at the opening ceremony.  The little girl was not "cute enough" and has to settle with just her voice being used and in her mentality, it's an "honor" that her country used her voice if not her face. Really what kind of thinking is that? Are citizens so brought down that they do not have pride with themselves at all? For a country full of corruptions, I was not so surprised about the judging.  

And the age issue, come on!! The Chinese plastered the ages all over their newspaper and internet prior to the games with birth certificates nad admissions of some Chinese gymnasts that they've competed in Athens under-aged.  That's proof enough! Passports? Yeah, you think it would be hard for a government to make up one at all? Especially a corrupt nation? Haha! I lived in a corrupt government and it's very easy to do and people don't care if it makes them look S****y because it's all about money and power.  

Answer 2

No the point is (if most of you responders actually watched the olympics) that China has more success in judged events such as gymnastics than in non judged events such as swimming and track. It does seem that home countries are more biased toward their athletes but a few of the gymnastic events were just absolutely ridiculous. the chinese athletes weren't terrible but the scores the received are extremely disparate to their actual performances. You actually have to watch the event and understand scoring to see that China got a few extra fractions of a point.

Answer 3

"I observed something DISTURBING about the medal counts" LOL

there are not a lot, if any, chinese judges.

some teams could've done worse than china.

maybe china is that good.

your math is a bit funky.

you have different denominators so that will change your percentages between the two countries.

Answer 4

Accept that the Chinese are traditionally best at sports such as gymnastics, diving and table tennis whilst Americans are traditionally best at track & field, swimming and pretty much every other event!

Besides, America have finished in the top 2 in the medals table for the past 5 Olympic games!

You are also wrong on another point: you say the 'Olympics are susceptible to corruption except when held in USA, Canada, Australia or Western Europe ' but it seems you have forgotten about the US finishing first, quite controversially, in the 1996 Atlanta games which the US hosted.

Take the rough with the smooth and understand that there are more countries to the world than just America.

Otherwise, the Olympics become more repetitive than they already are.

Answer 5

Half of the gold medals China has won so far are in events that do not have judging - archery, shooting, wrestling, judo, table ennis, badminton, rowing, weightlifting.

As for the judged events of diving and gymnastics:

And in the World Diving Championships held in Australia, Canada, and Spain and the World Gymnastic Championships held in California, Denmark, and Germany (all western countries), the Chinese still came in first or second most of the time.

Answer 6

That's a fair point. But one to be discussed AFTER the Olympics, not during them, can't be anything done about it at this stage.

Answer 7

I could not have put it better.  Even looking at the stats, people still say, "oh they're not cheating."  Come on people, face the facts.  Don't say they're better at those events.  Did you watch any of the judged events?  Thank god for having non judged events or else no one but China would win medals.  

Answer 8

It's also the fact that Americans are good at swimming and track and field, which are events that can't be judged.  There are very few Chinese swimmers and track athletes, which shows the increase in American medals won on unjudged events.

Answer 9

I'm an aussie so i can't really have an opinion but since ur practically forcing me to write this then...CHINA IS A BUNCH OF CHEATERS!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

Well I did hear this thing about how in womens gymnastics Nastia Liukin and this girl from the Chinese team had an even score or something like that and China got the gold just because the judges liked her better...

Answer 11

because while you r away looking at a window, there are some specifics that you are missing....xiaou lin for example

Answer 12

ur a dumba$$

Answer 13

Judge events are inherently flawed because there will always be human error.  And like it or not there will always be a certain amount of bias.  When it comes to gymnastics there's already built in bias with the stance of there are no more perfect 10's, which means when it comes to execution value, the judges must find flaws and mistakes even if there are none.

In this Olympics the individual vaulting competition shown on NBC last night was a perfect example.  The female Chinese vaulter did not receive the proper amount of deduction for her execution score even though by rule she should have received a .3 deduction on her landing.  That's not my opinion, that's per the rules as quoted on the NBC broadcast.  But who is to say the judges "saw" the same thing we saw on the many replays.  It's the judges' choice to go to the replay camera or not.  We have no choice as the replay is shown to us from seven different angles back to back showing her knees clearly touched.  This deduction would have taken the team leader of the Chinese team off the medal stand.  Incompetance or bias?

I still watch gymnastics because it's an amazing feat of athletisism, but I could care less about olympic boxing and the shading judging that goes on.  I'm sure NBC didn't appreciate it very much that their expert boxing analyst was berating the judging of boxing on their evening broadcast, blatently satating if a judge wanted to influence a fight for or against a boxer all they had to do was press or not press a button.  In the end nobody is the wiser because all the judge has to say is he/she didn't see it.

Don't forget the Winter Olympics figure skating point trading scandal in Salt Lake?

That's why in combat sports (Boxing, MMA, etc.) they tell you not to let the judging go to the score card because then you are at the mercy of flawed human judges.

Answer 14

With some events like female Gymnastics - every judging has been in the Chinese favor it seems to me. So I absolutely agree something is rotten there.

But then some events like diving...they're just amazing at. I can imagine anyone else but then winning.

Unfortunately with judging comes subjectivity - and with that room for bias.  Ultimately it's hard to do anything but continue to cheer for the US and shake your head at "iffy" scoring.  

Answer 15

The explanation is that China has better athletes in those categories. For example: China has long dominated diving and continue to do so.

Even if the Games weren't held in their home country, there's nothing to stop them from bribing the judges. America's athletes are weak in those divisions. Get over it.