Which matters more to your country and you?

Question

the number of medailsts for your country

or the number of Olympic Champions (gold medalists)

??

Answer 1

Both are irrelevant to me.

I watch the Olympics to see the finest athletes in the world doing what they do best.  

My favorite so far:  The 74kg Greco-Roman gold medalist from Georgia (I won't attempt his name....)

Answer 2

I don't care how many medals the USA brings in.  What I do care about is how they represent our country and how they behave.

Answer 3

the tile of the fastest man and the fastest woman in the world...

GO BOLT AND FRASER

WHOPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEE

Answer 4

I think I'd rather have more medalists (as in Phelps would count as only one medalist despite winning 8 golds). I'd like to see as many different people as possible from my country get on that podium.

Answer 5

I agree with the first answer, it should not be sp materialistic. When you see a race, or any other event, there is always those athletes at the end. They suck, one must think, but they don't. They are fast, or strong, or whatever, just someone else is that much faster. Everyone worked hard to compete and be there.

Medal validate the accomplishment of the athlete, not the country. This is not like proffesional sports where winning buys you a commentating job or tons of endorsement. Micheal Phelps, I heard someone yell. He's going to make a ton of money on endorsement! True, but the fact is, he would have endorsement if he had won one medal, or none. the guy is simply amazing.

The American media, NBC being the main culprit, treats the olympics like a giant cultural pissing match, and it's a shame. Whatever happened to taking the high road, spirit of competition and all that? All they care about is how many gold this and that because they are a media company, bent on making money from sponsors based on rating, not showing the full picture of what the Olympics are about. They are producing it like a TV sitcom, not a global sport phenomenon.

This is DR Jiffy, trying my hand at sports writing.

Answer 6

The answer is neither. At the end of the day, the athletes are competing for themselves. The idea of attaching medal counts to countries is not what the Olympics was supposed to be about. They ought not to have flags and nationality designations at the Games.

Answer 7

Neither, the Olympics aren't about patriotism they're about honoring the Olympian gods (Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hera, etc)

and showing them just what mortals can do. The gods are interested in that.

In that sense Olympic champions matter far more than silver or bronze medals. But not for any particular country. The gods right now are toasting Usain Bolt for setting world records, particular in an event like the 200 where world records are rare. Swimming records are ok but they fall all the time, none of them is older than the year 2000. Half of the track records are early 90's or before, including the 200.

Zeus is also not pleased at how many people are ignorant of events like the discus. Can you say off the top of your head who won the discus? Watch out for lighting bolts coming from Mt. Olympus. They wouldn't have made that ancient statue of a discus thrower if it wasn't important to the gods.

Answer 8

Medal count, which I agree, disgusts me whenever I see it.

Answer 9

Olympic champions. I'm glad that we win any medal but being the best in the world at your event is what it's all about.

Answer 10

It honestly doesn't matter to me, of course I am proud whenever I see an American on the podium, because I know they worked hard to get up there, but in all honesty I care more about how the Americans play their events and how they act in victory and defeat.

Our American athletes have to salvage our reputation somehow, after all the American idiots on here (not quoting the Green Day song) have tainted it.

Answer 11

I truly don't care because it isn't supposed to be all about the medals, it is supposed to be about unity and frankly, I feel disgusted everytime I see the medal count.