After no medals in anything in 00, 04 and 08, PUR finally got back to the count with Javier Culson’s bronze in the 400m hurdles. We got a gymnast to men’s finals, who ended up a respectable #6 in the rings. We had two boxers make QF, one is already eliminated and one remains with a chance to advance to medals. Not a bad show for us, really, though people will whine at COPUR about not more medals, as if they could just spit them out.
Currently looking good for another (possible) gold in the prancing pony team competition (dressage) for Team GB - come on!
We totally rock at all the sitting down sports! 
We’ve now won our 20th gold in the team-being-posh-with-horses event. We are also guaranteed some more medals in boxing and sailing even if we sink/run away in final rounds, which will take us past our Beijing tally on all counts. We have a realistic chance of three more golds today in the cycling. With Russia having a slightly difficult time, we’re also looking good for 3rd in the final table.
Looking at the breakdown, we’ve won about 60% of our medals sitting on our arses, which must be some kind of record. But for a bit of variety, we’ve even won a couple in the Judo, a sport where you actively try to avoid landing on your posterior.
We are up to 22 golds. This is getting quite silly now.
I like the fact that, after GB won 7 out of 10 golds in the track cycling in 2008, the rules were changed to try and ensure such dominance didn’t happen again.
Whoops!!!
We still got 7 out of 10 and but for a silly DQ by Pendleton and a brilliant performance by Mears, it could’ve been even better.
I was rooting for Team GB in that race, but Mears really, really earned that win. Only .001 off in the first heat, and her strategy in the second was brilliant (as you say).
Absolutely, and good on Vicky Pendleton for accepting it with good grace, best rider won on the day.
Two great semi-final matches in women’s Water-polo, see Spain (10-9 over Hun) & the US (11-9 over Au in OT) through to the final – thus assuring at least a silver for either team. The two played to a 9-9 tie in the group stage.
Well, we got 7 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze on the track in 2008, and only 7/1/1 this time, so their fiendish plan is working. Very, very slowly.
Australia have doubled their gold tally today, and are up to 11th in the medal table. I predict Australia will be a happier place tomorrow.
Hearty congrats – and lots of healthy jealousy – on your amazingly successful Olympics both at the team level and thus far, the overall success. May they both continue.
Still bothered it wasn’t Nadal facing Murray for the Gold at Wimby. 
Thanks very much. I think home advantage counts for a lot. Not so much in terms of things like favourable refereeing, although there has been a hint of that on occasion, but more in how motivated the home team is, and how much money and support they have behind them. Spain had a big medals peak in Barcelona in 1992 which tailed off afterwards but has stayed at a higher level than before. I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened with the GB team.
It seems to recently be the case that holding the Olympics at home results in a big boost in the medal count.
2010 Vancouver: Canada’s best Winter Games ever, by a mile.
2008 Beijing: China’s best Olympics ever, by a mile.
2006 Torino: Italy didn’t do great in overall count, but 5 golds was their second best ever
2004 Athens: Greece’s best Games ever
2002 Salt Lake City: Best Winter Games for the USA ever to that point; had a few more medals in 2010, but one fewer gold
2000 Sydney: Austrlia’s best Olympics by total medals, easy; one more gold but 9 fewer medals at Athens
I guess this isn’t surprising; a host city is probably going to pump the cash into the athletes.
Of course, the big exceptions were Canada’s previous two times they hosted: Calgary 1988 and Montreal 1976. No gold medals either time.
That, and the host country gets into every event. While this tends to result in a lot of 0-5 in pool play type results, you’re bound to get the occasional surprise.
Looking over the medal breakdowns right now. It looks like YogSosoth and Dzegeiger’s hypotheses may need a little tweaking. China has, to be expected, numerous medals in swimming, diving, gymnastics, and shooting, but also two judo medals a gold in racewalking, and a few fencing medals. They’ve done really good in weightlifting (5 gold, 2 silver), which I’m quite frankly amazed at. I don’t think not caring much about soccer is really much of a surprise, or basketball, for that matter.
Huh…well, like it or not, it looks like medal comparisons are going to be a thing, so we’re going to need some kind of objective standard. Well, first off, let’s cut this “per capita” garbage immediately. Unless you expect to see 70-year-olds, babies, disabled veterans, the obese, the terminally ill, the impoverished who can’t afford to spend months in training, etc. etc. at the Olympics, it’s a bum argument. Better to count only the people who are actually going to be competing for medals. It’s easier to deal with smaller numbers, anyway.
Personally, though, I think it’d be best to keep it simple: Have a certain number of points for each medal. I remember the old Epyx games setting values of 5, 3, and 1 for gold, silver, and bronze, respectively, but I think that’s a bit excessive. “Rewarding winning”, when taken to excess, can skew results far worse than “not rewarding winning” would. This isn’t Formula 1, where you have the same vehicles doing the same kind of race on the same type of surface any time. Gold is better than silver, which is better than bronze, and that’s really good enough. So 3, 2, 1.
Oh yeah…thank you, Novelty Bobble! I was starting to wonder if anyone here thought I was anything other than the lunatic who always writes too long.
Even at that, at both games we won more medals then at any games (of the respective variety) since 1932.
Sorry, I can’t help reading the headline as Olympics - How is Your Country Farting?
Hey. We’re Americans. We fart LIKE A BOSS!
In news that isn’t nearly as smutty as it sounds, somebody has violated Jessica Ennis’s golden postbox.
Being a good Yorkshire lass, they won’t be the first …
I prefer 4-2-1. (After all, you figure two bronzes are as good as a silver; I agree, and likewise figure two silvers are as good as a gold.)