US Women's soccer team wins gold

And we don't care..

Published on August 26, 2004 By Draginol In Sports & Leisure

So the US Women's soccer team won the gold medal. Not to be too much of an ugly American but sheesh, talk about dominating the olympics to a ridiculous margin. We don't even like soccer here. It would be like Cuba winning the hockey gold.

Medal count:

Country		Total Medals	Gold	Silver	Bronze
	United States	83	28	31	24
	Russia	57	15	19	23
	China	54	25	17	12
	Australia	43	16	11	16
	Germany	35	10	11	14
	Japan	34	15	9	10
	France	27	10	7	10
	Great Britain	25	7	8	10
	Italy	23	9	6	8
	South Korea	22	7	10	5
	Netherlands	20	4	8	8

Comments

Lotherius

on Aug 30, 2004

I'm sure there's some way somebody could make this political. I'll refrain.

David St Hubbins

on Aug 30, 2004

Great article. A few corrections, though:

Contrary to popular belief, soccer is one of the most popular sports in America:

'according to the Soccer Industry Coucil of America, there are more than 17 million Americans playing soccer, with high-school participation jumping more than 60 percent between 1998 to the present.' Link

Yes, I know that it doesn't do well on TV, but the measure of popularity is not how many people sit on the couch and watch it on the idiot box, but rather how many actually play the game.

American women have been highly ranked on the world stage for at least the last decade, so your Cuban hockey analogy is curious to say the least. Brandi 'The Peeler' Chastelain ring a bell?

'In 1995, the USA finished third at the WWC and then won the Olympics. In 1999, the USA won the WWC, then finished second at the Olympics. In 2003, the USA finished third at the WWC' Link

A better analogy would be, oh, I don't know, Argentina winning the men's basketball gold medal?

Not to be too much of an ugly American

Not at all. America has had a tough go of it lately. Twenty eight gold versus twenty five gold is impressive but does not constitute domination, by the way, unless you are desperately grasping for something to be proud of. Actually, on a per capita basis, America's showing was quite weak compared to at least eight of the countries you have listed above.

With all of my love,
David St. Hubbins

zergimmi

on Aug 31, 2004

Sorry Brad on this one I have to agree with David, assuming the population of the US is approx 300 million, Australia 20million, US 83 medals , Australia 43 Medals, and I know these are not final figures, however now lets see who dominates sports, on a per capita basis the Aussies wipe the floor with you guys, not that I want to be seen as an ugly Australian, but you gotta admit that this year was not the best for the big superpowers as far as medals go.

Muggaz

on Aug 31, 2004

here is a great per capita medal tally - listing rankings by population and gold medal, and then rankings by population with any medal.

The USA is actually in decline as a world power in sports, with their Gold medal numbers dropping since Atlanta. Australia won an average of 2.4 medals per million people, and the USA won 0.35 medals per million population - and in anyones language that spells OWNED

womans soccer - come on, you only won the world cup 2 years ago! and you dont even play it... sheeesh!!! what about Baseball, didn't you guys invent that sport, and not even qualify??? hehe...

Anywho - I am just looking forward to Beijing!!!

BAM!!!

nmrhth

on Aug 31, 2004

Muggaz, you're right, our baseball team composed of college students did not qualify for the olympics. That's because our best players are in the middle fo their professional season. Also, look at the actual total of medals. The us earned 103. I'd hardly call that being in decline. In fact, compared to the two countries immediately below us in medal totals, we did incredibly well on a per capita basis. I'm not trying to diminish what Australia did. You guys had a great olympics. but the US did too.

Muggaz

on Aug 31, 2004

You guys had a great olympics. but the US did too.

I think thats what made these Olympics so great for me - there seemed to be so many medal events with Aussies and Americans agains each other!!! Whilst our nations are the best of friends, it's good to get some angst out with the white line fever!!! 103 medals is a great acheivment indeed!!! as is 49 with a population of 20 million, you will have to forgive me for being arrogant, but half the ammount of medals with 1/15 size of population instills my heart with so much pride, I will carry on about it for as long as I possibly can!!!

BAM!!!

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