# Why does the US always dominate the Olympics? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 12, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576 "2016-08-12T16:49:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/21 "2016-08-12T20:11:58Z")
I’m definitely feeling old if no one remembers the state sponsored pros of the Soviet Union going up against the college students of the US. It didn’t feel like we dominated. And we certainly don’t dominate the winter games. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/22 "2016-08-12T20:14:51Z")
it was mostly just BB, hockey and a few other sports where the US sent college kids. The rest of the athletes were beyond college age. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/23 "2016-08-12T20:16:09Z")
As I write this, the medal count is – uh, spoilers, I guess? I don’t know if TV coverage has a tape delay that I’d be ruining for anyone – 16/12/14 for the USA, and 12/9/14 for China. So, yeah, we’re awesome, yay; but that’s still a pretty danged respectable showing for the folks I hear are having a century. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/24 "2016-08-12T22:52:44Z")
If you take any stock in this metric, dominate tapers off to also-ran [http://www.medalspercapita.com/](http://www.medalspercapita.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/25 "2016-08-12T23:04:30Z")
Geeze, these younger kids these days. “Always” means more than the past 10 years. For the Summer Games, the USA has not dominated medal counts for about half of them since 1936 (where we did not lead the count, either. Nazis! I HATE Nazis!). How quickly they forget the Soviet Union! ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/26 "2016-08-12T23:52:55Z")
also for winter sports US does not have school teams except for hockey. So everyone else trains on their own which is more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/27 "2016-08-13T00:16:24Z")
Prior to the Olympics I read [Olympic medal forecasting: It’s easier to predict results than you might think](http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympic-medal-forecasting-its-easier-to-predict-results-than-you-might-think-20160804-gqkpak.html) which predicts medal counts using a model that started with only 3 factors: > [@](#): > > What, then, are the three variables that can make such a precise prediction of a country’s Olympic medal count? > > The first variable is population size. If natural athletic talent is uniformly distributed over the world’s population, then it follows that larger countries will have more athletes with the greatest natural ability. > > The second variable is GDP per capita. In countries with higher GDP per capita, the population is likely to have more leisure time to devote to sports and there will be better infrastructure and more funding for training elite athletes. > > The third variable is whether a country is the host of the Olympics. Being the host has been associated with a strong positive effect on a country’s medal count (in the Olympics before and after hosting, as well as at the Games hosted). Additional refinements have been added over the years. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/28 "2016-08-13T02:57:12Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > And in the US we have achieved full equality of the sexes, with respect to soccer, anyway: Nobody cares at all about men OR women’s soccer… Well, avg MLS attendence has risen 61% since 2000 to 21,574. > **[Major League Soccer attendance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance)** > > Major League Soccer is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. Competition began in 1996 and attendance has grown rapidly since the early 2000s, making it one of the fastest-growing sports leagues in the world. The average attendance of 22,111 in 2023 was a 60% increase over the 13,756 average in 2000 (the lowest in MLS history). The total attendance of 10,900,804 in 2023 is almost five times that of 2,214,978 in 2002 (the lowest in MLS history). Similar to Majo... World Cup ratings have both male and female are huge: [http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/07/06/usa-japan-womens-world-cup-tv-ratings-record](http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/07/06/usa-japan-womens-world-cup-tv-ratings-record) > **[TV Viewers: U.S. men vs. U.S. women](https://www.socceramerica.com/tv-viewers-us-men-vs-us-women/)** > > In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said an average rating for a men’s game is a multiple of the equivalent women’s game, “not 10 or 20 or 30 or50 percent higher.” Just how much higher are viewerships... Not only are we watching, we are growing in our fandom every year. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/29 "2016-08-13T03:06:15Z")
George Steinbrenner got involved > **[Steinbrenner Had Quiet Passion for Olympics (Published 2010)](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/sports/baseball/14olympics.html)** > > George Steinbrenner led a commission in the late 1980s that urged changes in the way that U.S. athletes were trained and paid. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/30 "2016-08-13T03:59:48Z")
You know what’s a bigger surprise to me, considering how much money and resources we have at our disposal? How many events that we are simply _not_ competitive in. Like, I watched the -75kg women’s weightlifting today, and the American competitor set a personal best with 107 kg in the snatch, en route to setting an American record, and finished in sixth. Table tennis, too. We are completely irrelevant in that event. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/31 "2016-08-13T05:25:34Z")
Basically, just two obvious things determine how many Olympic medals each country has won over time. The first is the population of the country, since obviously you can’t win a lot of medals unless you have a lot of people. The second is the GNP per capita, since you can’t win a lot of medals unless you have the extra cash to spend on training. There are several other small things. One is that athletics and, particularly, the Olympic games has to be a matter of national pride. The is why a number of smaller countries win medals out of proportion to their size. Some countries are more sports-oriented than others. I’ve been told that this is true of Australia and New Zealand, where people are heavily sports-oriented. It used to be true that it was a major matter of national pride in East Germany to win medals in the Olympics. Also, some countries got into sending athletes to the Olympics earlier than others, which may be why Nordic countries do so well: [http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:all-time](http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:all-time) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/32 "2016-08-13T11:50:53Z")
communist countries used to fund people with gov. money for smaller sports like table tennis. The US has never done that kind of thing with government funding. There is private funding but not much. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/33 "2016-08-13T12:29:37Z")
It also helps that we don’t have a Ministry of Sports. Our development of athletes is decentralized, and while they represent their country, they also represent themselves. Many athletes are subsumed to their country’s desire, and some Olympic teams face punishment if they do not do well. Charming, I know. Our athletes also win a spot on the Olympic team through merit, whereas some nations with large pools(ahem, Russia, China) handpick their athletes. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/34 "2016-08-13T12:58:32Z")
So what do you suppose that the British minister of sports does to subsume athletes’ to their country’s desire? And when the Chinese government “handpicks” its athletes, on what basis other than merit do you suppose they make such choices? And in what way has it prevented them from winning medals? And do you suppose that the American system, while relatively successful, might result in the loss of potential of a significant number of those with athletic talent, from lack of access to the system? That’s not really an argument for something different, but merely to point out that your argument are largely irrelevant to what actually happens in the world. Merely mentioning the existence of a “Ministry of Sport” says nothing without also specifying what any particular ministry of sport is doing that hinders athletic development. Merely mentioning hand picking of athletes says nothing about how that might affect medal success if that hand picking is based on athletic skill and achievement. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/35 "2016-08-13T13:21:09Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > communist countries used to fund people with gov. money for smaller sports like table tennis. The US has never done that kind of thing with government funding. There is private funding but not much. Aren’t there US military personnel currently competing in the Olympics as part of the World Class Athlete Program? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/36 "2016-08-13T13:39:33Z")
Chinese athletes are literally property of the state. > **['State property': Memoirs of a top Chinese gymnast](https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ct-xpm-2012-07-26-sns-rt-us-oly-chn-fan-adv1bre86q04f-20120726-story.html)** ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/37 "2016-08-13T13:53:14Z")
An article about how some American Olympic athletes are funded: > **[Why some American Olympians had to crowdfund their way to Rio](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/olympic-american-athletes-rio-money-costs-usoc/)** > > "When asked to play for your country, you just don't think twice about it." It’s a more disorganized manner than in some countries. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/38 "2016-08-13T15:22:51Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > So what do you suppose that the British minister of sports does to subsume athletes’ to their country’s desire? > > And when the Chinese government “handpicks” its athletes, on what basis other than merit do you suppose they make such choices? And in what way has it prevented them from winning medals? > > And do you suppose that the American system, while relatively successful, might result in the loss of potential of a significant number of those with athletic talent, from lack of access to the system? > > That’s not really an argument for something different, but merely to point out that your argument are largely irrelevant to what actually happens in the world. > > Merely mentioning the existence of a “Ministry of Sport” says nothing without also specifying what any particular ministry of sport is doing that hinders athletic development. > > Merely mentioning hand picking of athletes says nothing about how that might affect medal success if that hand picking is based on athletic skill and achievement. This is how it used to be: [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html) Probably not as bad now, but I invite you to to watch replays of the 2016 Women’s Gymnastics events that recently concluded and decide for yourself whether the Chinese were entirely upfront with us when they claimed that their women’s gymnastics team were all over the mandated age of 16 years. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/39 "2016-08-13T16:20:22Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > This is how it used to be: > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html) > > Probably not as bad now, but I invite you to to watch replays of the 2016 Women’s Gymnastics events that recently concluded and decide for yourself whether the Chinese were entirely upfront with us when they claimed that their women’s gymnastics team were all over the mandated age of 16 years. I’m sure the Chinese government engages in all kinds of misdeeds, but this has nothing to do with the thesis that I was responding to, which was that government involvement in athletic development harms a country’s chances of success. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576/40 "2016-08-13T17:08:17Z")
I see white Americans do very well at swimming, and I see black Americans do well at track and field. You’d kind of hope so with a 300 million population and first world funding. I also see the UK, Australia and Germany currently beating the USA on half the population. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-always-dominate-the-olympics/762576.md?page=3)