If you just add core EU: Italy, France, Germany, GBR - their medal counts are G-9, S-13, and B-8 for 30 total. It would be more fair to compare those numbers with US and China for a similar population count.
Ya - good points everyone! There are people on here who think!
Anonymous
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Population count? South Korea has less than 50 million people and is 3rd in the medal count. As a comparison, France and Germany have 65 and 85 million people, and they have less than half of the medals South Korea has.
DMAB
According to http://www.eumedalcount.eu/ the European Union member states total count is now 51 medals including 17 gold medals (figures as of August 13 at 1000 CET).
The argument saying that the EU count doesn't count :-) since it isn't for one team, but for a collection of teams, is of course relevant. However, everybody knows that when you draw elite athletes from a given population, you'd better have 1 billion to draw from, than 1 million...
In my humble opinion, Modern Olympic Games are nothing but an outdated pre-First-World-War event where the nation with the largest population (and the best artillery) has more chance to win... As such, it is pure politics.
Thus, counting the medals coming from the EU member states together makes clear that by gathering together Europeans are in fact top of the list. This will not change the world, but only make the point...
Anonymous
and your question is???????
ok I think I see your point now...you're wanting to put the best of the EU against a country, rather than a continent, which would obviously give you an advantage...so does the USA get the medal count from Mexico and Canada too? What about the Aussies, are the f'ed or what? since their country IS a continent. Get over it dipswit! It's country vs country, not contitnent versus country! BTW if you put China and USA against EU it wouldn't even be close, that would be 43 medals against 20 something. And we haven't even gotten to track and field (USA's core sports along with basketball and volleyball).
Anonymous
The EU is analogous to the US with all its states. If we compare apples to apples, the EU still dominates the medal count. If the EU has sent more athletes, it's because they have more capable athletes overall than the US and China.
Click on this link, http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/12/2008_beijing_olympics_medal_count.php
Anonymous
i think i see your point. i guess you're pointing out that the larger countries who have a higher population have a higher chance a winning medals, and they get more medals as well.
i agree. this is why i think they should consider perhaps limiting the amount of athletes a country sends, or perhaps when judging medal counts use a percentage rather than straight numbers.