The NPR article titled ‘Let’s talk about China’s whopping Olympic gold medal count‘ discusses China’s lead in the medal tally at the Paris Olympics. While the piece offers insight about the Chinese dominance in a couple of sports and explores why the U.S. is lagging in Gold medal counts, its unbalanced view of Chinese success raises questions on fairness.
The opening line is: “China leads the gold medal tally by a sizable margin with thirteen first place finishes. France and Australia each have ten golds.”
The article’s reference to China’s three-medal lead as a ‘sizeable margin’ is somewhat overstated, given the overall low medal counts at this stage of the games. Discussing percentages at this stage can be misleading, as small differences in absolute numbers may appear exaggerated when expressed as percentages. For instance, a difference of one medal between a count of two and one represent a 50% increase, but it doesn’t reflect a meaningful lead. The point is that talking in terms of percentages at such levels is not helpful. Even in absolute terms, a difference of 3 medals is not that significant.
Then the article goes on to say: “First, China has relied on just two sports, shooting and diving, to amass eight of those gold medals.”
Singling out China’s reliance on only a few sports is unfair, particularly when other nations exhibit similar patterns. As of August 4, the U.S. has 19 gold medals, with 11 coming from Artistic Gymnastics and Swimming. Australia has 12 gold medals, with 7 coming from Swimming. It’d be equally unfair to make the same arguments against the U.S. or Australia.
Moreover, there’s nothing inherently wrong with excelling in just a few sports, particularly when many events are still to come. China might improve in other sports in future Games.
After quoting the athletes from China and the GB, the article says this: “China’s athletes have won only one gold medal in the pool. At the Tokyo Games in 2021 they scored three swimming Olympic golds.”
Should we expect a country to surpass its medal counts in every sport at each successive Olympics? For example, is it reasonable to expect the U.S. to surpass the 11 swimming gold medals they won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? As of August 4, they only have 8.
Moving on, the article says: “One other reason the U.S. lags in the gold medal count: U.S. swimmers have struggled.”
By this time, the article has failed to establish the reasons for the U.S. lagging in gold medal counts before mentioning the struggle of the U.S. swimmers. Additionally, it overlooks the strong performance of Australia in swimming, which likely contributed to the relative decline in U.S. swimming golds.
Finally the article ends with: “One final note about China’s place on the medal board. The International Olympic Committee ranks nations by gold medals first. By that tally, China leads overall in these Paris Games overall. But Team USA has long ranked nations by overall medals – including gold, silver and bronze. By that tally, the U.S. leads with more than 40 medals, with host country France in second place with more than thirty medals.”
If that’s the case, an article titled “Let’s talk about U.S.’s whopping Olympic medal count” is equally justified.
While China currently leads the gold medal count, the margin is far from ‘sizable’. Moreover, focusing on the specific sports where China excels seems unfair, especially when similar patterns can be observed in other leading nations. Olympic reporting should celebrate the achievements of all nations, maintaining the spirit of unity and fairness that the Games embody.
Reference to the quoted NPR article – https://www.npr.org/2024/08/02/nx-s1-5061584/china-paris-olympic-gold-medal-count