*Update* haters. Canada is 1st in the medals standings!

[fundmark19]

you can if you quit your full time job and train for 8-12 years and try real hard!

[LockedOut]

US has one more gold than us for about an hour more.

[Bertuzzied]

Canada is now all alone in 1st! 10 golds. Tied for the highest ever with the 1984 communist boycotted Summer Olympics in LA.

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Even though the US has 102121 medals they only lead with 7 gold medals.

Canada now has 6 with curling, women's hockey, and short track relay still due up. I think we can pass the US.

I have to assume its been said 102121 times.

first in gold.

you are not right.

Who's hating also?

[JohnnyB]

this is really adding even more importance to the gold medal game.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

this is really adding even more importance to the gold medal game.

Yep. Going by number of golds, that game could very well decide the winner of the Olympics. Imagine that.

[The Goon]

I've never heard before that any one country "wins" the Olympics. I've heard the medal table and standings being referred to, but the team with the most medals isn't the winner.

Also, as stated elsewhere, different countries will put their own spin on the results. That way, everyone wins.

[transplant99]

Put it this way...the USA, as of Saturday morning, has 34 total medals....but dont lead in gold...so do you think they would consider that anything but a huge success?

In 20 previous games they had a total of 216 medals...or 11 per games. They have tripled their average this time. Gold or not, a massive improvement.

Canada should be quite proud as well as their average coming in was 6 medals per games. They will have quadrupled that total when all is said and done after tomorrow.

Awesome stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-tim...es_medal_table

[browna]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

this is really adding even more importance to the gold medal game.

Also, the Canadian long track men are in the pursuit final against the US today. One, or the other, get gold in that event too.

[Mirajj]

Originally Posted by The Goon

I've never heard before that any one country "wins" the Olympics. I've heard the medal table and standings being referred to, but the team with the most medals isn't the winner.

Well, the point of the Olympics is to figure out which countries athletes genitals are bigger than the other countries, don't you know. Of course, someone has to 'win' the Olympics. The point to spending billions of dollars is to give one country the right to (Nelson voice) "Ha ha" at the other countries...

[pepper24]

Good feat by the Canadians. I never expected them to lead in the medal count but getting top 3 I'd be happy with. Being first in golds would also be great as well but I think medal count is the better assessment of how your country has done.

Go Canada!

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Canada should be quite proud as well as their average coming in was 6 medals per games. They will have quadrupled that total when all is said and done after tomorrow.

Awesome stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-tim...es_medal_table

Interesting stuff. That 6 medal average is greatly schewed from past Olympics when the Canadians didn't perform well. Every since around the 1998 Olympics the Canadians have taken off. It probably means that from the 1988 Olympics and earlier that we had less than 6 medals on average.

The reason? The Canadians are exceling at new Olympics sports such Curling, ski-cross, snowboard-cross, freestyle skiing, women's hockey, short track speed-skating, skeleton racing etc.

If you take away long-track speed skating (mainly the women), figure skating and women's bobsled what other medals are not new sports?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Interesting stuff. That 6 medal average is greatly schewed from past Olympics when the Canadians didn't perform well. Every since around the 1998 Olympics the Canadians have taken off. It probably means that from the 1988 Olympics and earlier that we had less than 6 medals on average.

Before 1998, actually. And as you noted, the explosion in events added to the Olympic program since 1992 has been huge for us:

1924: 1-0-0=1
1928: 1-0-0=1
1932: 1-1-5=7
1936: 0-1-0=1
1948: 2-0-1=3
1952: 1-0-1=2
1956: 0-1-2=3
1960: 2-1-1=4
1964: 1-0-2=3
1968: 1-1-1=3
1972: 0-1-0=1
1976: 1-1-1=3
1980: 0-1-1=2
1984: 2-1-1=4
1988: 0-2-3=5
1992: 2-3-2=7 (4 medals in events that existed in 1988, 3 in new events)
1994: 3-6-4=13 (7 medals in "classic" events, 6 in new)
1998: 6-5-4=15 (7 classic, 8 new)
2002: 7-3-7=17 (6 classic, 11 new)
2006: 7-10-7=24 (10 classic, 14 new)
2020: 10-7-4=24* (7 classic, 17 new)

*Includes three medals of unknown colour; possibility of an eighth medal in a "classic" sport (four-man bobsleigh)

[The Goon]

Originally Posted by Mirajj

Well, the point of the Olympics is to figure out which countries athletes genitals are bigger than the other countries, don't you know. Of course, someone has to 'win' the Olympics. The point to spending billions of dollars is to give one country the right to (Nelson voice) "Ha ha" at the other countries...

Given that the majority of our medals have been won by women, I really hope there's not a correlation with genital size.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Interesting stuff. That 6 medal average is greatly schewed from past Olympics when the Canadians didn't perform well. Every since around the 1998 Olympics the Canadians have taken off. It probably means that from the 1988 Olympics and earlier that we had less than 6 medals on average.

The reason? The Canadians are exceling at new Olympics sports such Curling, ski-cross, snowboard-cross, freestyle skiing, women's hockey, short track speed-skating, skeleton racing etc.

If you take away long-track speed skating (mainly the women), figure skating and women's bobsled what other medals are not new sports?

That's obviously part of it, but the other big thing that has impacted Canadian medal growth is the legacy of the 88 games. The infrastructure left in place enabled Canada to take on a leading role in a number of sports and helped attract new athletes to various sports. Without the bobsled track in Calgary it's doubtful that the bobsled and skeleton programs are where they are, same goes for the impact of the oval on speed skating. The US is getting similar benefits from the Salt Lake games.