Thursday 21 August 2008

Sugarcoating the Olympic Medals

So I have never posted before, and I'm not actually in China yet, but I've just seen an interesting little piece of news about the battle for best of the sporting goliaths between the US and China.

A Boston Globe worker has just told the BBC that he's been reading the China Daily and how their "sugarcoating" of Olympic medal tallies is trying to make it seem like China is beating the US in Beijing at the moment.


Of course that disregards the fact that they are beating the US, but then again, I suppose it matters how you actually determine what constitutes beating.

Just in case you're unsure of what he means, the US tallies the total number of medals won (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) where China – and I think most other countries – give a weighted preference to Gold. So, where China is ahead of the US by 18 Gold medals at the moment, they are actually in second place by 5 medals in total (82 to 77).

It just seems like there's a bit of bitterness there when an attack on the state-controlled Chinese media is used just because the Chinese Olympic team has won more Golds...

2 comments:

  1. Yes I noticed that one too. Someone should tell the Americans

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  2. Paul my olde china ;-)Hows it going Bro..yr mum said not to say or act silly etc so of course I have :-)

    Think about you whenever China creeps into conversation or the news ..."as our man in China".

    Paul there must be some deals we can do import/export...opps your mum might be loffing so keep that on the QT.

    I noticed excellent Guardian supplement on "China Steps Out" 29/9. Its all about China's Media potential whch appears to masive. Why not get in contact with the Editor of the supplement Kate Bulkley and/or David Clayton 020 7131 7086.

    The supplement was paid for by KPMG must be other big multinationals who would sponsor various themed supplements which you could contribute to or even edit.

    I'll just take 10% of the grant for the idea to go with my 1% of the unsigned band that I still technically own :-)

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