Population of South Korea: 48 mil Population of Canada: 33 mil One thing I'm wondering is why China isn't more dominant in the winter olympics. These are sports China should be able to dominate once they put their money and training behind the effort. I'm guessing they put all their money and effort behind the summer games because of Beijing and let the development of winter athletes lag.
Korea has done well. But if you want to see a really small country doing well, just look at Norway. Norway has only a little more than 4 million people and they are third in medals won so far with 19.
It has nothing to do with population. Canada and Norway have a long tradition in these sports and have had a high GDP for a hundred years. Korea literally has a handful of facilities for skating, and 30 years ago was a 3rd world country with an average income of a few thousand dollars. But after the 1988 Olympics in Korea, they started funding sports and those kids who were born after that date are the Olympians you see now in various sports. China doesn't do well because like Korea it has no tradition of winter sports and next to no facilities for the population to do those sports. China started its Olympic push around the time it was campaigning for the 98 Olympics so it's about 10 years behind Korea. China probably passes Korea in the medal count in 2018... Population really doesn't have the impact that you think. Whether you're 1.5 billion or 4 million you only get a certain number of slots at the games, and with training methods at parity and the fact that Olympic caliber athletes are at similar level, larger population doesn't mean you'll necessarily dominate. Obviously WEALTHIER nations give distinct advantages and opportunities. There's a reason why the US is #1. China's rise in the Olympics isn't going to be tied to having a billion people, it's going to be tied to its increasing economy.
I agree with bloop that population doesn't have much to do with success in the Winter Olympics while tradition and financing does. I've skied at the PRC's best ski resort and in terms of facilities and level of difficulty its behind even ski hills here in Minnesota. They are training their alpine skiers and judging from what I saw I could probably make their alpine skiing team. That said the PRC are finding success in the winter Olympics in sports like aerials by taking people from their vast gymnastics program and training them to land on skis. They are taking people from their track and field program and teaching them to skate so they can speed skate. Also for the last 30 years they have been building up a figure skating program by building off of ballet and gymnastics.
The American Media and all those whining and hating on S. Korea are pathetic. The girl, regardless of race or nationality, shattered her previous set WORLD RECORD. Probably the greatest ever. These journalists need to be shot. Queen Yuna was like the first Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics. That is how freakin dominant she was. I guess living in Japan, and having everyone pissed off around me that a "dirty Korean" won the gold in a dominant fashion doesn't help. What happened to sportsmanship? or did it ever really exist in the Olympics?
Geez... That's awful. I've always wanted to visit Japan, but I've always (in the back of my mind) been slightly afraid to due to being half Korean.
what media is hating? all i've heard in the states is how amazing she is. relax...not everyone is out to get you
It's great in Japan. Just sometimes the racial ****e surfaces. I'm Korean-American and married to a Japanese girl. I guess I'm guilty of it too but I look forward to watching Korea beat Japan at anything. even still, during the WBC I cheered along with them when Japan won and said it was an exciting game and both teams were great but Japan was able to close it out. You're half-Korean dude. They won't care. It's like any other developed country. You have your racist pricks, your cool people, and then those who are cool but still are struggling with thousands of years of racial/nationalistic pride. Kinda like any caucasian-americans or any race in america for that matter. Korea is a bit hard to get used to at first and (I'm assuming youre half white) you'll run into people gettin in your face or trying to fight you, but Japan is thinking the same thing. They just aren't as "in your face" about it. Regardless, both places are fun as hell. Asia rocks. You should totally come out here. Just have to get used to the cultural differences. I started to think that I hated Asians and their mentalities, but now I've come to realise that I just hate most people and their mentalities.
I didn't say the media was hating. I said a ton of people were hating. The media just kinda downplayed it. I expect that from any other country if they don't medal in an event but I guess I just had a higher expectation from America. Like I said earlier, her performance was as dominant as the 1992 Dream Team. She shattered her world record. That is a huge deal in sports. Who said anyone was out to get me?
Who is hating? I can honestly say I haven't read or seen a single piece hating on this girl...Granted, I haven't been seeking out any material on this person, but, uhhh...you seem to be stretching things a bit... Even the commentator on NBC said something like "This was an all time great performance."
What exactly have you heard and from whom? Everything I've read has been glowing about her. And the US didn't have a real threat, so it's not like the situation was even there to root for her to mess up.
The skip for Swiss Women's Curling team just had a total Shuster. She actually out Shustered Shuster. She just GAVE Chine 6 points in the last 2 ends. Screwed up all 4 shots and was forced to concede. China wins the Bronze.
