Wait Until There’s A “Colorful Musicals” Olympic Event, Then We’ll See Who’s Laughing
The Los Angeles Times‘ Chuck Culpepper points out that Australia is really winning the Olympic medal count if you adjust for population. As of yesterday (Monday), the Aussies had a medal for every 4.1 million residents … the U.S. one for every 25.3 million.
Culpepper’s table doesn’t go beyond #10 Azerbajan, but we have a good idea who’s last. Think of a giant up-and-coming nation that’s not China.
Yes, India has one medal — albeit gold — for its 1.1 billion people. In 10 meter air rifle, which sounds like a sport the IOC meant to drop but forgot to.
Abhinav Bindra’s win is, believe it or not, India’s first-ever gold in an individual event. The last gold of any type for the country was in field hockey in 1980, and the nation has only 12 medals of all types since independence in 1947.
If they were Aussies, they’d have, oh, 268 or so by now.
Aishwarya Rai: not an Australian
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This article blames India’s consistently poor showing on excess bureaucracy (India sent 227 officials and 75 athletes to Athens), the lack of a sports culture, and the absence of a development system.
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August 13th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Hey Apu, a little red meat on the dinner table wouldn’t hurt.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Let me prioritize for the Indian people. Here are things that you should acquire before chasing Olympic medals: plumbing, medicine, paved streets, rodent control, dentists, transportation, irrigation, flood control, soap, condoms, ice cream, cheese puffs, deodorant and rock n’ roll. Then you can think about pissing away your nation’s wealth on a handball team.
August 16th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I’d add being able to help me with my DSL without driving me to near suicide.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I dont know the relation between Aishwarya rai photo and Post
October 19th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
The problem is politicians, they don’t want the infrastructure in place, they want money, money and moe money.