Counting Olympic medals

China's gold rush, and what it means

Officially, the Olympic Games are between “athletes, not countries,” said The Washington Post’s Postmark Beijing blog. Unofficially, the Olympic medal count is the most hotly contested event of all. China has collected 43 gold medals so far, with the U.S. in second place with 26. But if Americans end up winning more total medals, including silvers and bronzes, the debate over who really triumphed will continue beyond the closing ceremony.

China is clearly the big success story, said John Powers in The Boston Globe. “By now, the Chinese national anthem has been played so often at the Games of the XXIXth Olympiad that most foreign spectators probably can hum it from memory.” And there’s no secret to their gold haul—Chinese athletes get a charge from the roaring home crowd, and their country’s “relentless focus” on multi-medal sports, especially on the women’s side, is paying off.

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