Why does tiny Australia kick ass at the Olympics, while giant India flounders?

[green slime]

France is something of a mystery. They should have a better armed force than they do; they've got fairly modern equipment, a decent-sized armed force, and they spend money on it. But they just don't do as well in action as they should; I suspect their weaknesses are in training, maintence, and logistics.

I would disagree with your generalistions. I think they do well at what they are train for: small scale brush wars in former colonies, mostly african. As they are quite reluctant to deploy the Army proper, as opposed to the Foreign Legion, which gets rushed off everywhere.

 

[Akrasia]

I'm curious....are these figures in American dollars? I'm pretty sure Canadians tend to have a higher standard of living in the U.S., even though our dollar isn't worth as much.

I don't think the U.S. is backward....it's just that there's a far larger gap between the rich and the poor, so the poor are more visible than in Canada.

Banshee

Until a few years ago, Canada ranked 1st or 2nd -- alternating almost yearly with Norway -- in the United Nations' "quality of life" index (which incorporates factors like literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality, etc., in addition to purchasing power and per capita GDP). In recent years it has slipped -- down to 5th place, and then, most recently, 8th place (behind the U.S. btw) -- for various reasons, mainly changes in the way in which the index is compiled.

Claims about "overall quality of life" are incredibly vague and subjective, at least above a certain threshold (i.e. a threshold that all Western countries easily surpass). E.g. if you consider decent public transportation an important ingredient, extremely well-off parts of the U.S. will suffer (I am amazed by how bad public transportation is down here, even in the 'progressive' Bay area). On the other hand, if you consider lower taxes to be an important ingredient, the U.S. will tend to do better than most other Western countries.

The only "hard stat" that Canada consistently beats the U.S. is average life-expectancy (for some reason Canadians live longer). The main "hard stat" that the U.S. consistently beats Canada is per capita GDP.

Finally, there are WAY MORE wealthy Americans, as a percentage of the U.S. population, than there are wealthy Canadians. So the rich-poor gap between Americans is bound to be much greater than the rich-poor gap between Canadians. Having a smaller rich-poor gap in a country does not necessarily mean that there are fewer poor people in that country; it can also mean that there are fewer rich people.

As a Canadian, I frequently get tired of the many "myths" that Canadians tell themselves about their country and the U.S. (e.g. that the U.S. is somehow awash in poor people)...


Right, back to the Olympics ...

 

[Akrasia]

Where do you get the literacy numbers ... QUOTE]

The data I have mentioned in my posts are from The Economist's "World in Figures."

Global literacy rate = 79 percent. 9 people in 100 own a computer.

 

[LizardWizard]

Russia does pretty well; it's roughly similar to Japan in population, and considerably poorer, but wins far more medals. They don't do as well as they did in the Soviet era, because the Russian government no longer throws money (and steroids) at the team, and because half of their team plays for other countries now (Lithuania took the heart of Soviet men's basketball; many of the best divers and gymnasts are from Ukraine or Belarus).
[edit: deleted Germany comparison; I always think Germany has more people than it really does.]

Yeah, that's mostly true, but the standard of doing "pretty well" is considerably lower than it used to be. 15 gold medals three days before the closing ceremony is certainly below the expectations; ironically, if you summed up all medals won by ex-USSR athletes (including those who moved to the US,Australia,Germany, and other countries), this virtual Team Soviet Union would be the winner of the Games. And if you include medals won by athletes who were by trained by Russian specialists working abroad (Ian Thorpe and Carly Patterson being the most colorful examples), you get a picture of complete Russian/Soviet domination in sports.
Which isn't such a bad thing after all .

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

..., ironically, if you summed up all medals won by ex-USSR athletes (including those who moved to the US, Australia, Germany, and other countries), this virtual Team Soviet Union would be the winner of the Games.

Alternatively, if you counted medals based on where athletes live and train, the US's count would explode from where it is now. For example, Felix Sanchez who ran for the Dominican Republic in the 400m hurdles and got gold.

Sort of like how almost 90% of all of the worlds best golfers live, and have lived for decades, in Orlando, yet play for the country of birth in the Ryder Cup.


Regards,
Eric Anondson

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Still, on the plus side, if rugby union and netball were in the Olympics, New Zealand would have a chance to win something, and we can't have that.

I dunno; although trans-Tasman rivalry is forever fierce, it seems to me that it's like competition between brothers. You never want your brother to beat you, but you always want your brother to beat the other kid. So when Australia's been knocked out in an international competition and New Zealand's still in there, I can't help but barrack for the little Black & White b.....ds from the Land of the Long White Clod, er, Cloud.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar