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Originally Posted by redwitch
One thing to remember, China does not count any medal but gold. The rest are considered a loss by them. In their minds, they truly won the medal count. There are other countries with the same mindset. To me, it is a shame that the honor of being able to compete at the Olympics has been pushed aside and only if you win does it mean anything.
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I agree and I disagree!
As far as the medals, really the golds are the only medals that count. The silver and bronze are in recognition of losing. Counting all of your medals and comparing that against the total count of your opponents is like saying in a football game "They scored more points but we gained more yards so we won". Second place is the first loser.
That said, I absolutely believe that any athlete who has spent so much time training and then accomplishes the feat of making their Olympic team deserves a huge amount of credit and praise. Whether they win or lose isn't important really - getting there is really the accomplishment! They bring honor to their country and fellow team mates! We should recognize them more with the honors bestowed on the gold medal winners. Should someone who trained for 4 years then loses by 1/100 of a second not be honored for their accomplishment? They should be on the cereal box too!