Sunday, August 17

How Singapore can win >1 medal in Olmypics

Edit: The post has been edited because I was told there are also singles competition in ping pong, other than team competition.

After a 48 year old drought, Singapore has finally gotten back a medal at the Olympics 2008.
A lovely silver medal, after Singapore beat Korean in the semi-finals (a hard fought fight), and lost to China on the finals (the Chinese are really a class above the rest).

Tell any Singaporean that Singapore has gotten a medal at the Olympics, and I'm sure anyone would have guessed that its the table tennis.

But there is something that I do not understand. Why wasn't table tennis broken down to more than 2 categories, so that any table tennis player can get say, up to 8 medals?

Take swimming as an example to illustrate my point.

Michael Phelps also helped to earn 8 gold medals for his country, in both singles and team events (and create a record for the most number of medals earned in an Olympic).



Take a look at what Michael Phelps won.
- Men's 100m Butterfly (Gold)
- Men's 200m Butterfly (Gold)
- Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay (Gold)
- Men's 200m Individual Medley (Gold)
- Men's 400m Individual Medley (Gold)
- Men's 200m Freestyle (Gold)
- Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay (Gold)
- Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay (Gold)

Anyone see some synergies?
2 butterflies, 3 medleys, 3 freestyles.
Is 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly that big a difference?
If he can create world records in 1 of these items, I don't see why he can't create similar records in similar events.

To say that Phelps won the most number of medals in a single Olmypics doesn't sound that big after all - because swimming is probably the only sport that can earn such a record number of medals.

I don't swim, so enlighten me.

I once read that the Asia physical build is smaller than the Western counterparts. Thus, the typical Asian excel in aglity games (like Ping Pong) while our Western counterparts excel in games involving strength (like swimming).

As of now, USA has won a total of 65 medals, of which 31 of the medals are contributed from the various categories of swimming. To win more medals, maybe Singapore can start spending more time to groom swimmers than ping pong players. =p

Else, maybe we can we petition to the Olmypics Council for right-handed ping pong and left-handed ping pong competitions?
Or maybe further subdivide into a normal ping pong bat and square ping pong bat competition?

Yes, my examples are a little unrealistic, but I hope u get my point.
The weigtage given to some sports are a little biased.
Anyone can explain?

About the Author: Shingo T scratches his head for dandruffs.

3 comments:

khengsiong said...

Maybe two gold medals (and two silver medals) for any doubles event, as they are two players involved. Also eliminate 3rd place playoff so that the players who lose in semi-finals automatically win bronze medals.

(T) (H) (B) said...

Yah. Seperate according to height and weight. Sexual preference. Favourite food etc then we'll be flooded with olympic medals.. hur hur...

Shingo T said...

KS:
Twice the gold medals awarded to a country's medal count for double events may not neccessary work. Soccer has 11 players. Speaking of which, soccer has only 1 gold medal in the entire Olympics.

HB:
Haha, good one.

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