Michael Phelps - How many gold medals in Beijing?

[ScriptOhio]

Michael Phelps continued his march through the history books, winning the men's 200 freestyle for his third gold medal of the 2008 Beijing Games. He joined a stellar cast, including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis, to become one of the winningest Olympians ever by grabbing his ninth gold medal. Phelps' ninth career gold tied him with Spitz, Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi for the most wins in Olympic history.

ESPN - Phelps breaks 200 free world record by almost a second - Olympics

 

[Jaxbuck]

Once in a lifetime fencers don't get Wheaties boxes.

Dude, Jack Armstrong made a wheaties box and he's not even real.

Swimming is important to swimmers, their parents and their coaches.

 

[buckeyefool]

Maybe the bet shouldn't have been how many medals he is goingto win, but how many world records he was going to break.

 

[wells]

Swimming is important to swimmers, their parents and their coaches.

Our country perhaps? Easily our most successful and dominant Olympic sport.

If you measure success based on national titles, next to syrnchrnized swimming, it is Ohio State's most successful sport. OSU is tied with UM for the most NCAA titles at eleven.

 

[OCBucksFan]

Meh, he may be a scummer, but Phelps is representing our country, I don't really get the hating on him, but I guess you guys are just really hungry for football.

 

[bkochmc]

Our country perhaps? Easily our most successful and dominant Olympic sport.

The US track team says hello... they have won the most medals of any other sport by far. Especially dominating are the US sprinters.

http://www.databaseolympics.com/country/countrypage.htm?cty=USA

Sport.......Gold...Silver...Bronze
Track........316......232......188
Swimming.....201......146......109

No other sport comes close to these two though. Boxing, diving and shooting are next and all of those have less than 50 golds each.

Back to Phelps... I'm of the same mindset as OCBucksFan. Phelps being a Skunk Bear (in academics only) has no bearing on me cheering for him to smash the rest of the world. The Michigan fans who brag about him being a Wolverine are almost as silly as Buckeye fans who brag that Lebron James would have been a Buckeye if he played in college.

 

[HailToMichigan]

The US track team says hello... they have won the most medals of any other sport by far. Especially dominating are the US sprinters.

United States Olympic Medals

Sport.......Gold...Silver...Bronze
Track........316......232......188
Swimming.....201......146......109

No other sport comes close to these two though. Boxing, diving and shooting are next and all of those have less than 50 golds each.

That medal count is probably to be expected given the number of events. Swimming has 17 for men and 17 for women, track & field has 24 for men and 23 for women. I'm at work so I'm not gonna bother counting up historical events, but track & field has also had many more events through the years. I'd bet that the US has won a bigger percentage of swimming medals than track medals.

 

[bkochmc]

That medal count is probably to be expected given the number of events. Swimming has 17 for men and 17 for women, track & field has 24 for men and 23 for women. I'm at work so I'm not gonna bother counting up historical events, but track & field has also had many more events through the years. I'd bet that the US has won a bigger percentage of swimming medals than track medals.

Track has a total of 736 medals which averages out to 6.72 golds and 15.66 medals per event.
Swimming has a total of 456 medals for an average of 5.91 golds and 13.41 medals per event.

Statistically track is the more dominant sport.

 

[Bleed S & G]

That must be why they make the swimmers swim in the morning so that the events can be televised in prime time in the States. Check the TV ratings and see how many people care. 37 million people can't be wrong. Say, how are the synchronized swimmers doing?

I know how the real swimmers are doing. 1-3 in the 200 free.

You need to a take deep breath

Once in a lifetime fencers don't get Wheaties boxes.

Excuse my ignorance, but when was the last time a fencer had a shot to win 8 gold medals?

People care not because they give two shits about swimming - but because Phelps is an incredible athelte.

Since your argument consists of wheaties boxes and tv ratings - What are the TV ratings for non-olympic swimming events?

That being said, I don't give a crap if he is scUM or not - he is wearing red, white, & blue - not piss yellow and navy.

 

[wells]

The US track team says hello... they have won the most medals of any other sport by far. Especially dominating are the US sprinters.

http://www.databaseolympics.com/country/countrypage.htm?cty=USA

Sport.......Gold...Silver...Bronze
Track........316......232......188
Swimming.....201......146......109

No other sport comes close to these two though. Boxing, diving and shooting are next and all of those have less than 50 golds each.

What you aren't considering is the fact that Track allows three qualifiers per event, per country. Swimming only allows two because the United States swept so many events no other country had much of a chance to take home medals. The last time there were three US Swimmers per event was the '76 Olympics.

There are also some events that were discontinued, or just brought back that would skew your total, and average medal counts. The 50 meter freestyle has only been an Olympic event since '88. My assumption would be that there are plenty of events on both sides that are like this. Thus your average probably isn't the best way to gauge things.

 

[bkochmc]

What you aren't considering is the fact that Track allows three qualifiers per event, per country. Swimming only allows two because the United States swept so many events no other country had much of a chance to take home medals. The last time there were three US Swimmers per event was the '76 Olympics.

There are also some events that were discontinued, or just brought back that would skew your total, and average medal counts. The 50 meter freestyle has only been an Olympic event since '88. My assumption would be that there are plenty of events on both sides that are like this. Thus your average probably isn't the best way to gauge things.

While you are right that my average is not the best way to gauge which US team is technically more dominant in their respective sport I don't have time at the moment to figure out when each event started, the total number of possible medals, how many US athletes had the ability to win those medals, how many of those events are relays, and do a statistical analysis of that. I might be able to do that later today (I'll post that in the official Olympics thread to get this one back on topic).

While track does allow three qualifiers per event just like swimming the athlete must meet a standard to participate in the Olympics. If you don't meet that standard and you don't win your national trials you don't participate.

I posted to show your assertion that swimming was easily the most dominant US Olympic sport is false as both track and swimming are on the same level. In fact if you add just the gold medals for those two sports together they account for 57% of the total US gold medals in the summer games.

 

[HailToMichigan]

Track has a total of 736 medals which averages out to 6.72 golds and 15.66 medals per event.
Swimming has a total of 456 medals for an average of 5.91 golds and 13.41 medals per event.

Statistically track is the more dominant sport.

Again though you're forgetting to take into account history. Swimming historically has had many fewer events than track.

Historically, there's been a total of 884 track & field events and 488 swimming events. In other words the Olympics have handed out 884 track & field golds and 488 swimming golds, or will have by the end of this Olympiad.

That works out to an average of .83 medals and .36 golds per track event, but .93 medals and .41 golds per swim event. Slim margin, but still.

BTW link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_sports Turns out it's easier than I thought to count the events. The first table lists how many of each.

 

[bkochmc]

Again though you're forgetting to take into account history. Swimming historically has had many fewer events than track.

Historically, there's been a total of 884 track & field events and 488 swimming events. In other words the Olympics have handed out 884 track & field golds and 488 swimming golds, or will have by the end of this Olympiad.

That works out to an average of .83 medals and .36 golds per track event, but .93 medals and .41 golds per swim event. Slim margin, but still.

BTW link: Olympic sports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Turns out it's easier than I thought to count the events. The first table lists how many of each.

Good link... you (and wiki) did my work for me. I ran those numbers without this year's events against the medal counts so neither averages are punished for not having the medals counted... both numbers are stunning:

Track: 837 events, 736 total medals (0.88 per event), 316 golds (0.38 per event)
Swimming: 454 events, 456 medals (1.00 per event), 201 golds (0.44 per event)

 

[Bleed S & G]

Again though you're forgetting to take into account history. Swimming historically has had many fewer events than track.

Historically, there's been a total of 884 track & field events and 488 swimming events. In other words the Olympics have handed out 884 track & field golds and 488 swimming golds, or will have by the end of this Olympiad.

That works out to an average of .83 medals and .36 golds per track event, but .93 medals and .41 golds per swim event. Slim margin, but still.

BTW link: Olympic sports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Turns out it's easier than I thought to count the events. The first table lists how many of each.

Thanks for answering my question HTscUM

 

[buckeyes_rock]

Meh, he may be a scummer, but Phelps is representing our country, I don't really get the hating on him, but I guess you guys are just really hungry for football.

I agree. Once every 4 years, it's all about wearing the uniform of THE United States of America...that's all that matters.

And I'm beyond hungry for football...I'm practically starving!