Why do collective olympic sports count as ONLY ONE medal in the total count per country? Is that fair?
Other disciplines have various events within them, i.e. gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and it is fine to give each event a medal, but wouldn't it be fair to count each medal won by a member in a collective sport as well? That way, a country like Peru that would otherwise not win many events would have had 12 silver medals in Seoul instead of (1?), or Paraguay would have had 22 silver medals in football in Athens instead of (much less). Maybe there would be a rule to count only team athletes that played (thus, discounting non-participant substitutes). This would also mean that each medal-winning relay racers/swimmers would count in the total per country tally. It just seems more fair to me... what do you think?
Answers:
Why is there no midget olympics?
Well, they only won it once, so that's one medal.But everyone get their own medal.
The reason that team (or collective) sports only earn 1 medal in the count is that it is a team event and there are no competitions for individuals within that event. There is one exception to this, however. Look at gymnastics. First you have the team competition, but also you have the individual and all around competition going on at the same time. The team's compete against each other in the individual apparatus', while at the same time the gymnasts are also competing for individual honors. In your example, where does the individual events for Peru's or Paraguay's team athletes come in?
Of what nationality is the current world record holder in the men's 3000 meter Steeplechase?
Peru won a silver medal for volleyball in Seoul and Paraguay a silver medal for football in Athens. It just seems to me that each athlete that gets to battle it out on the court, on the field, or in the pool (in the case of water polo for example) throughout 2 weeks of matches requires as much Olympic exertion as a gymnast in 4 days of individual competitions. Your point re: team events in otherwise individual disciplines is also valid. The team competition in gymnastics awards, what, seven? medals but counts only as one in the overall country tally. I think it would be fair to count all participating athletes who receive a medal in the overall count. That way you would recognise the efforts of athletes from developing countries as much as you would those athletes who compete in individual events. So Phelps won 4? medals in 2004, which meant 4 more for the USA. Scherbo won 6? in 1992, which went all to the CIS. But when Brazil's 12 women win a silver in football in 2004, all their efforts count as one. I guess they should have two tallies: one per discipline, and another per participating athlete. Would be more fair.More Questions & Answers...