I think part of the problem is that between each Olympics, Australia shows up at the Commonwealth Games and, to mis-quote Blazing Saddles, “Works up a Number 6 on 'em.” We win a bunch of medals and then go into the Olympics expecting a simillar performance.
Australia has underperformed to expectations in the pool, and the problem is on a couple of fronts,
#1 - we had a golden period (if you’ll excuse the pun) through the late 90’s and 2000’s, with far more world class swimmers than we had any right to have, Thorpe, Hackett, Klim, Perkins, Jones, Rice, etc. As they have retired we don’t seem to have replaced them with swimmers of equal talent, or in some cases like Rice, they are on the downslope of their careers.
#2 - A lot of other nations have come knocking at the doors of our swim coaches, and either sent athletes to them or in some cases lured the coaches overseas. The new 16yr old Chinese swimming sensation spent long periods of time in Brisbane under the tutelage of an Australian swim coach.
Has to be said, though - this is the Olympics that keeps on giving. Was that salute to Billy Bunter in pinata form part of the opening ceremony that was running late or just some impromptu political satire?
I’m just guessing, but I bet China, per capita, is sucking wind!
As a flag waving American it’s tough to get too pissy, but I’m feeling a little disappointed by our outcome so far. We’re trailing China slightly which is unacceptable for us. Perhaps this attitude sounds petulant, but that’s what the standard is. In the pool there have been some high profile disappointments and we’re turning up too many silvers and too few golds. All in all, we’ve rarely out and out flopped though.
I suspect things will get right when track and field starts. There’s little doubt that we’ll dominate the Chinese there. Also, our run in all the team events looks like it could be unprecedented. From Gymnastics to Water Polo to Swimming to Basketball, if the gold medal count included physical medals given out we’d run away with it. Of course, I’m putting the cart before the horse and counting my chickens, but things are on track.
I’m American (no way, get out) and nearly my entire extended family is of Chinese ethnicity, so pretty much everything since Barcelona has been a fantastic ride.
I’m actually now starting to regret NBC and ESPN’s unshakable militancy, because China has evolved into a major sports power, and I’d really like to see how. You don’t get that kind of medal haul from favoritism, doping, and shaky judging. It looks like they’ve gone through most of their really strong events, but they’ll continue to contend even if they’re not the favorites. I actually think our side (meaning the US of A…it has its flaws, but it’s home!) has a pretty good chance of finishing on top, but not by much.
I like this. We’ve needed a real rival for a while, and while Russia gamely held on for a while, it’s now all too clear that their days on the top are over (with that final disastrous floor exercise being the nail in the coffin). It’ll be great to have a mostly clean rival for a change*, and it’ll be great when we finally beat.
Anyway, I’m just plain happy now, and believe you me, that’s an incredibly pleasant surprise. 
Oh, and a special shout out to Japan. Man, whatever they did, it’s working, big time. I remember a time, not too long ago, when 4 medals was a great haul for them. Ganbatte! (Hey, this is the first time I’ve ever did that here, don’t have a cow!)
- Is it just me, or is there a lot less corruption than there once was? If I’m not mistaken, there hasn’t been a lick of “controversy” so far. Was it really just the Soviet machine all along?
Team GB having a huge day here. In a few minutes, we’ve won two golds and a silver in canoeing and shooting. We have a woman through to the Judo final, and a boxer has scraped a decision to beat a world champion. These are special results, as they weren’t at all expected. Our sailors are also moving back into contention. Up to 5th in the medal table now.
Cyclists Chris Hoy (5 time Olympic medallist) and Victoria Pendleton (gold medallist and 7 time world champion) in action a bit later, although I think this is just the heats?
They covered the “how” a bit more in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In a nutshell, they have over a billion people, and any young kid that appears to have an aptitude for a particular sport is taken away from their family and put in a specialized school where sport is the primary focus for them as they grow up.
Furthermore, as mentioned in some of the threads on medal counts, they are very much aware of strategies to maximize their numbers–spending a lot of money to train 30 guys in soccer results in a maximum of one medal, and one bad day can kill that and leave you with nothing. Spending the money to train 30 guys in swimming can get you 20 or more medals, and a bad day only costs you one or two. So swimming gets prioritized.
And now the flip side, with Pendleton and Varnish disqualified from contesting the gold medal race due to changing over on the wrong part of the track. That’s a huge disappointment.
Gutted for Jess Varnish, that’s her Olympics over. At least Vicky Pendleton has another couple of events. Interesting to see that a world record has been beaten 3 times, and an Olympic once already in the velodrome. They did say it was a very fast track.
Edit: Make that 4 world records!
Which has now been joined by a silver medal in fencing.
One more like that and you won’t be able to walk for the flying pigs…
Someone needs to get the tape measure out and check that track, I think 
Big day for GB. We’ve already done better than the total haul for Atlanta.
Just shows what a concerted effort can do. We utterly bombed then and immediately after the process of national lottery funding kicked together with a major change in sports administration and we now are reaping the rewards.
China have done the same, money plus population plus political will equals medals. (it’ll be fun and games if India ever decide to do the same)
We were a bit slow off the marks but now we are getting to our stronger events. I don’t think we’ll get to our Beijing total of 19 golds but as long as we punch our weight I’m not too fussed.
Getting plenty of competitors to finals means that the public has something to cheer for and the medal haul should keep totting up and a top five place in the table is do-able and would count as success.
Gah, can’t find it again, but one of the sports journos on twitter posted that we are a fair bit ahead of where we were at this stage in Beijing, both in overall medals and number of golds. I don’t know how closely the events are following the same order though. But, yeah, to beat 19 golds would need some luck, I think.
Edit: From another message board: “Great Britain have now won 15 medals compared to 7 after 6 days four years ago with 5 golds against 2 last time”. This chimes with my recollection of the journo tweet.
Am I right in thinking that we’ve had/got rowers into every final?
I think so, or very close. I don’t think we are serious gold contenders in all of them but good to have that strength in depth. It is the same story with the track cycling. We’ll be pretty well represented in most of the latter stages.
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Just extrapolating out, that isn’t true. Canada is on pace for a normal number of medals, and none of the sports in the first two days were ones we’re typically good at.
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Judging Canada by the number of medals it wins at the SUMMER Games is crazy. Our specialty is now pretty clearly the Winter version. If you look across any full Olympic cycle, if you go 2004-2006 or 2008-2010 or, eventually, 2010-2012, we do extremely well.
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Personally, I don’t think it really makes any difference if we win 15 versus 19 or whatever. We win medals because we’re rich. We could win more if we spent more money on this stuff but all it would prove is that we’re rich.
Well that is surprising to me. Though my memory tends to be shocking on such things.
But I agree that a lot will depend on event order so difficult to know exactly where we’ll end up.
I do stick to my other point though, as long as we are challenging often then I’m happy and hopefully the medals will come (and will ensure that the country keeps funding the sports program)
A good thing. I think in the rowing and cycling the crowds have been immense in support of the British athletes. That velodrome seems really, really loud.
Agreed on both points. Radio 5 were saying that Gemma Gibbons medal in the judo meant that it was likely that their funding would continue.