Why does China win so many gold medals?

Question

I mean China being a communist country how is it that they win so many gold medals?

Answer 1

Because China is a rising power, and is rising phenomenally.

China is the only nation with 5000 years of continuous civilisation, and had reigned supreme for the past 2000 years.  From the 14th to 19th century, China was the most dominant power on earth for 500 years, and accounted for 30% of the world's output (imagine for 500 years, while USA becomes powerful only after WW2).  But the decline is USA is manifested in recent events, and USA is fearful.  It is a fact that if China were to overtake USA, and most economists predict that it would happen in less than 30 years from now, there would be no turning back.

**China's 4 greatest inventions: paper, printing, compass and gunpowder have one of the largest impact on mankind.  About 1000 years ago, the secret of paper-making was imparted to the West, and Columbus was able to make explorations with the use of the compass.  Further developments of the gunpowder in the West led to fire-arms.

Without inventions of paper from China, Europe would not be able to advance rapidly, because before that literacy rate was very, very low in the West.  Hence even the Bible was written without the vowels.  Printing made possible the availability of books to the masses, as cost of books production went down.  With the ability to travel further distances, information and knowledge were greatly proliferated.  Thus, those inventions were the cornerstone of human advancement.

And, USA has the largest number of drugs cheats.  So, all the medals USA won from the olympics should be revoked!  Hey, that makes USA the greatest loser on earth.

I am not from China or USA. My answers are in response to whiners and criers who fabricated all sorts of rumors to run down others who performed well in olympics.  We should appreciate the performances of athletes, instead of thinking up all sorts of fabrications, when our country happened not to win.  My own country did not get a gold, but we acknowledge that others are much better.

Answer 2

The users gr99a05 and Jessica B who posted here and everywhere else teamed up together and post anything insulting and damaging to China as much as possible in every questions about Olympics.

Like these two pointed out, it's China's first Olympics to be so dominating. These two human trash can't accept it and start posting hate speech toward China everywhere and gr99a05 you say ur not jealous? what a hypocrite.  

Answer 3

I don't think they are using kids underage, but I think people need to quit whining and making claims they're getting their butts kicked by little kids that's just pathetic.

So if John Doe down the street lives in a bigger house and has more in his bank account does that mean he can beat George X that lives in a shack with 0.02 in his account?  

Answer 4

Wow i didn't know americans were really that whiners, im proud i was not born there

Answer 5

Chinese are powerful in sports that are indoors, and do not utilize a lot of space.. such as ping pong, badminton, gynmastics, diving, etc. Also, because they are generally slim, notice none of their best sports are strength-related either.  

Answer 6

Well the 1 billion population could have something to do with it?

Answer 7

how does china being a communist country affect their performance at the olympics?

and how does the US being the 'most powerful nation in the world' have anything to do with how many gold medals their winning?

Answer 8

Because they have their children doing push-ups coming out of the womb.

Answer 9

it has nothing to do with communism that china has won so many gold medals.

i'm chinese and i think there are two key reasons:

1.china has been investing a lot more money on sports in resent years

2.chinese athelets have been training hard for a gold medal in olympics.

those who think china cheets,have u got any evidence?

looking back to sports histry,american may have cheeted 10 times than chinese.

Answer 10

WOW you labeling china as "communist" implying they are poor is due to ur ignorance, you must be American dumb question.

Answer 11

More anti-American rubbish on here as usual.  Why is everyone acting as if China is some super power in the Olympics?  They ARE NOT. This is their first year being number one.  Have you ever looked at the all time rankings?  America is number one, Russia is second, followed by a good amount of European countries.  China is further down the list.  China has never had a history of dominating in the Olympics.

Second of all, don't even try to equate America with China in how it abuses prisoners. You can ask yourself why everyone in the world wants to immigrate to America instead of China.

The people involved in these Olympics discussions who are bashing America don't have any of their facts straight.  They must be jealous of America or something.  Get over it.

"Why you hating on China? You do realize the U.S. would be economically destroyed, nor would we be where we are if it weren't for the Chinese? Hint: Bonds..."

HA HA HA. Are you kidding? What has China done for us? You should be asking what we have done for them. They have basically copied all of their technology from us. Would they have a space program if it weren't for America? No. Now I really can't think of very many things China has done to make America better . Give me a break.

You guys who are anti-American and pro-China are really grasping at straws.

Someone below is making a big deal about China inventing paper and the compass etc....So what ?  Europeans and Americans have invented 90% of the scientific discoveries in history.  Open up any book that talks about the history of science.  Notice how the author hardly spends any time on China and most of his/her time on Greece and post-Renaissance Europe.  I am obviously defending Western Civilization here (not necessarily America; although America is a product of Western Civilization).

Answer 12

Well, the USSR and East Germany won more Gold than the USA for years.  They were Communists!  The USA has only won the most medals since the 1996 Olympics and not even the most Gold medals in some years.  Before that the USSR pretty much won the most Gold since the 1950s.  We tend to exagerate our own success in the Olympics.   The USSR and East German governments put a lot of emphasis on winning Gold and they did.

Answer 13

I will post this for all of the forum trolls to read and comment without a lot of thought and make biased comments.

First let me state I am an American and have lived in the United States my whole life.

I found this forum by searching “china so many gold” on google.com because I had some concerns about china having so many and wanted to see if people felt the same way or if any publications have mentioned this as well. I will not get into the politics of the Chinese or American government, foreign policies or human rights etc. I will simply state my observations as someone who does not follow Olympic events closely but will check medal counts and surf some of the articles published about different events. First here are stats of medal counts which are historical only and do not represent current events.

1. 2004 Medal Counts : United States 36 Gold and 102 Total / China 32 Gold and 63 Total

2. 2000 Medal Counts : United States 36 Gold and 91 Total / China 28 Gold and 59 Total

3. 1996 Medal Counts : United States 44 Gold and 101 Total / China 16 Gold and 50 Total

From the information above we can see that historically the United States has remained pretty constant with and average of 38-40 gold medals a year. China year after year has increased from 1996 to 2000 by almost doubled in gold medals and from 2000 to 2004 has been fairly constant. Total medal counts have remained constant for both with China having a slight increase in overall medal count.

Now looking at this information above which is accurate and can be verified easily via the internet lets look at the current counts as the Olympics are not yet completed.

1. 2008 Medal Counts To Date : United States 29 Gold and 95 Total / China 46 Gold and 83 Total

Now we have 3 days to go while these numbers are accurate. It seems the United States gold count is going to be a little low or in line with historical counts. This is also true for the total United States total count. China has been awarded 116 percent of the total gold medals from 2004 and 130 percent of the total medals and we still have 3 days to go.

Now I will make some upset but these things should be said and it can be taken however you want.

The reason this forum even exists is because some people have legitimate concerns no matter if they are considered concrete or not. This reason is how I found this forum as I don’t know 1 of you. China’s population and economy may have some to do with training etc. but that is all speculation as many other high populated countries which are experiencing a boom too are not seeing this growth in medal counts. It is also interesting that this happens when the Olympics are taking place in China.

I am not saying the United States is better in the forum or saying we should be leading in this forum. I do have my personal views but I would like to leave those outside this post in an attempt to be unbiased. However, I would like to have an independent 3rd party that is unbiased evaluate the events ensuring the judging and events have checks and balances outside of China.

With this being said I also find it interesting that the official Olympic website is hosted in China which sensors search engines etc. Every time I have visited the site I read items like this which is posted there today.

“There were damp skies over Beijing on Day Thirteen and barely a dry eye on the house as China's Chen Roulin produced a last-gasp dive to clinch the host's seventh diving gold of the Games. Elsewhere, the United States displayed the value of team work, by taking two team sport titles”

The tone of this is geared toward China which I expect but am I the only one who is reading between the lines in the CHINA is great and oh yea… by the way here is what else happened.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

I am American and would die for my country if I was called into duty. I am also very proud of who we are and what we stand for. Some of these forum trolls will make comments about America and how we should be careful, we are arrogant, we owe who we are to other countries etc. I will not comment on them as they speak for themselves and you would either understand what I am saying or wouldn’t. Everyone has their own opinions about America and my post could not change that, however, I believe this forum is about China and the Olympics.

I do not think being Capitalist or Communist has anything to do with how a country performs in the Olympics either.

Answer 14

The nations political status doesn't have much to do with how its olympians perform you know....

Answer 15

Because they are using under aged participants,  and the judges are all biased.  It's blatantly obvious.  

Answer 16

I know, right?  I mean the US locks up people in Guantanamo Bay...how do they have so many medals?

Answer 17

1. They are the host country

2. They use underage athletes

3. The judges are biased, & give the best score to the Chinese

4. The Chinese are obviously willing to do anything to avoid embarrassment as the host country, & have proved that many times (ex-lip sync, underage athletes, hiding the real city behind pretty murals)

((Even worse, is they are getting away with it, b/c the IOC won't bother!!!))

5. The have no ethics

6. They train their athletes hard everyday, while they away from families.

7. They cheat, lie, hide facts, and simply aren't winning fairly

*Don't worry, next Olymics they will rank much lower again, like they always have.

Answer 18

Why you hating on China? You do realize the U.S. would be economically destroyed, nor would we be where we are if it weren't for the Chinese? Hint: Bonds...

Answer 19

coz Chinese are better

Answer 20

funny how china and america suddenly started competing in the BEJING games right?

Answer 21

Instigator.

Troll.

Answer 22

China, just does everything well. In life, in sports and everything else. They are trained this way, and even at times forced to do well. Almost like The Russians, where they are coached, brought up quite strictly. They are clearly the 2nd most powerful country behind ours, no doubt, with sports, industrialism, government, you name it. We better form a more of a friendly manner with them, otherwise one day, it could be possible they over take us at most powerful.  

Answer 23

the chinese have 200million people in the age of 17-27!!! this is such an amount of people if you think about it!!! here in ireland we only have 4 million altogether!!!! the population is the main factor!!! but also they have set up great organisations because of the games being held there and spent loads of money on it!!!!

Answer 24

It's not a matter of power, but of talent.  

Answer 25

Because China puts so much pressure on their Athletes to the point of telling them that if they don't win the next compitition then they are meaningless and their last accomplishments are not worth anything... :/

Answer 26

i guess they are better at those particular sports.

i mean, it's obvious.

=|

Answer 27

Just think about the Population of China, its not difficult to them to select top athletics to Olympics.

As you said, China is a communist country, athletics represent his/her country not only an honour but a way to get away from poor. The bonus and sponsorship a medal winner received are more than the total income of  his family to be earned in 50 years!

Also, China is in her economic boom, the government of coz has more money pumped to sport development. I personally dont think US is the MOST powerful nation in economic-wise since Sub-prime

Answer 28

The Soviet Union was a communist country and regularly beat USA in the Olympics. Since the break up of the USSR, China has copied their techniques of having specialist academies where all the competitors did was practice. They were not the first to reissuing passports with the date of birth changes - Romania was accused of this as well in the past. They also have the advantages of capitalism, lots of cash from the huge balance of payment deficit the US has with it to pay for the best trainers and facilities from the West. They really have the best of both worlds together with a huge population where honoring your country is utmost, I can't really see how the US can compete any more.

Answer 29

I think what is comes down to is hard work, and talent. The Chinese are very talented people who have been getting themselves ready for this olympic for many years. Being a communist country has nothing to do with it. I did expect the USA to do better because as they said they are the most powerful country in the world and they have the resources to import both athletes and coaches to make their team better. What I think hit them really hard was the Olympic committee new blood testing , which prevented them from performing better that they usually do.