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How many U.S. athletes won Olympic medals
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:13 am
by PaulB
I just checked the NBC site - they have a list of all the medal winners. I just cut/pasted this into a spreadsheet and got 262 medalists for the U.S., or 44%. Of these, 111 won at least one gold medal and 29 athletes won 2 or more medals.
Contrast this with China; about 700 athletes, 100 "medals" and 158 medalists (i.e. the US did a lot better in the team sports than did China).
The one other number that would be interesting would be the percentage of the total participants that won medals - any info?
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:10 am
by PaulB
I was able to find the answer to my question, plus some other interesting numbers.
28 sports
302 events
906 "medals"
11,028 participants
1,134 medalists (10.3%)
1 person with 8 medals
1 with 6
1 with 5
4 with 4
21 with 3
69 with 2
1,037 with 1
Thanks
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:38 am
by BPBrinson
Very interesting information. It was a great 2 weeks, no matter what country you are from! I enjoyed it, now maybe I can get some sleep!
Thank you, Brooks
Re: How many U.S. athletes won Olympic medals
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:07 am
by spacepilot
PaulB wrote:I just checked the NBC site - they have a list of all the medal winners. I just cut/pasted this into a spreadsheet and got 262 medalists for the U.S., or 44%. Of these, 111 won at least one gold medal and 29 athletes won 2 or more medals.
Contrast this with China; about 700 athletes, 100 "medals" and 158 medalists (i.e. the US did a lot better in the team sports than did China).
The one other number that would be interesting would be the percentage of the total participants that won medals - any info?
Not wanting to get into the controversies of gold count vs. total count, gold count vs. gold-awarded athlete count, He's age vs. Johnson's age, China vs. the world..., I just want to say that the dedication (at lease during the competition) required to win an individual Olympic gold medal vs. the dedication required to win a team gold is vastly different, IMHO. Case in point, a single lapse of concentration at the last moment cost Matt Emmons the gold medal in 3P. I doubt a similar lapse of concentration from any team sport player had been nearly as costly in the Beijing Olympic Games.
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:45 pm
by robf
You didn't watch the 100 & 400 relays then? :D
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:26 pm
by Richard H
A lapse of judgement in a team sport can have the same outcome. It can also be worse as you become responsible for what the others receive. Matt's lapse of concentration cost Matt a medal, a soccer goal tender missing a ball, a volleyball player missing a serve, can cost a whole team a medal, so in some respects there is also an additional pressure.
Personally I wouldn't even try comparing one to the other, they are just different.