London 2012: Which countries dominate each Olympic sport?

[Korean]

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Exclusive: Karate favourite for inclusion in 2020 Olympics | 2020 Bidding Sports | insidethegames.biz

Exclusive: Karate favourite for inclusion in 2020 Olympics
By Duncan Mackay

June 15 - Karate is the odds-on favourite to be included on the Olympic programme for 2020, according to the British bookmakers William Hill.

They are 1/2 to win the nomination ahead of squash at evens, baseball and softball at 5/4, wushu at 5/2, roller sports 8/1, sports climbing 10/1 and wakeboard 10/1.

"We think that it could be time for karate to come into the equation," William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly told insidethegames.

"Long ignored on an Olympic level, Hills make it 1/2 to feature in 2020 for the first time.

"Another sport that has never featured at a Games is squash and Hills make it even money to get an airing.

2020 Olympics inclusion odd according to London bookies

Baseball/Softball - 8/10
Karate - 5/10
Squash - 5/10
Wushu - 4/10
Roller Sports - 1.25/10
sports climbing 1/10
wakeboard 1/10

There is only one slot available, so it's either Baseball/Softball or Karate. Baseball is assured a return if the MLB office guarantees the availability of the major leaguers for the Olympics, but the MLB office is not making that guarantee.

[ChinaToday]

China to take a dip in the Olympic medal haul... but diving will save them

Spotlight on the main medal contenders: In the second in our series, Robin Scott-Elliot says the Chinese medal haul will fall from Beijing. They will still rule their traditional sports, but how they would love gold from poster-boy swimmer Sun Yang

On the eve of the team's departure from Beijing, host city of the last Olympics, for London, soon to be hosts of the next, Sun Yang, China's great hope for a first men's gold medal in the pool, stood to address his fellow swimmers.

He did not hold back. "I feel like a tough warrior," he declared. "With shield in hand, I am about to go all out. I am ready, London. We are coming. Chinese men are coming!"

Yang, his shield, trunks and goggles plus the rest of the swimming team are now in Bath, wrapped up warm and putting the finishing touches to their preparations to a Games which will test China's true Olympic strength. Four years ago

their athletes delivered a performance to match the venues and spectacle of the Beijing Games. For the first time the world's most populous nation climbed to the top of the medal table; an incredible 51 golds were won, 15 better than the US.

It was the best golden return since the 1984 Games when the US, their route to the podium eased by the Soviet bloc boycott, took 83. A more apposite comparison is with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where the host nation won 44 golds. China's achievements in Beijing were immense, but that was a peak that will not be matched. The question is how low will China go?

There were 639 Chinese athletes deployed in Beijing. There will be 396 in London. The host nation always fields armies of athletes – Britain's is the largest team in 2012 – but China's drop in numbers is dramatic. Both the US and Russia will also send bigger teams, and the top spot the world's sporting superpowers covet is America's for the regaining. The drop is explained in large part by the loss of host places and the failure of several of the larger team sports, including football, to qualify.

China's sporting authorities remain hugely ambitious though. After boycotting the Games for 32 years from the 1952 Helsinki Olympics – over the participation of Taiwan – China returned in Los Angeles and has clambered swiftly up the medal table. Sport is still regarded as a means through which the country's image can be presented in a polished, positive fashion, both internally and globally. Success beyond their usual areas – 38 of their 51 Beijing golds came in their traditionally medal-rich sports of badminton, table tennis, diving, shooting, gymnastics and weightlifting – is a key objective and that is where Yang comes in.

"I have no burden on my shoulders," he said on arrival in Britain a week ago. But he does and it's a weighty one. Gold is desperately desired in a sport in which China has a poor record. In the build-up to the Games, Yang has been given membership of the Communist Party. "The Olympics is a war-field without the smoke of gunfire. Fast-tracking Sun's application to enrol in the party will motivate him," an official from his home province of Zhejiang informed local media.

Yang is China's Liu Xiang for 2012. In Beijing the Athens 110m hurdles gold medallist failed to handle the pressure of being the home favourite – and his problems in the build-up to London have done little to erase the suspicion that this is an athlete ill-equipped to cope with the greatest challenges. In the wake of his withdrawal from last week's London Grand Prix, the headline in the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said it all: "The unbearable weight of withdrawing."

The good news for the Chinese is that Yang, all 6ft 6in of him, appears made of sterner stuff. Last year he broke Grant Hackett's 1,500m world record that had stood for a decade. It also earned him a world championship gold. He has Games experience as well, having swum at Beijing as a 16-year-old and has since had coaching from Denis Cotterell, the man behind Hackett's domination of the event (and another sign of China's willingness to now look beyond their borders to improve their sportsmen and women – a Frenchman, Daniel Morelon, coaches the women's track cycling squad).

The one question mark over Yang is that most of his success has come in home waters, and then there's the fact that no Chinese male swimmer has ever won a gold medal. London, where he is also fancied to win the 400m freestyle, will be a new frontier.

China's advance in the pool could prove one of the themes in the first week of the Games. Earlier this year Wu Peng beat the mighty Michael Phelps in the 200m fly at the Charlotte Grand Prix, while last year China took five gold medals at the world championship to finish behind only the US.

If swimming medals are a hope, in diving and table tennis they are an expectation. They will come, and in numbers, via the likes of Zhang Jihe and Ding Ning, respectively the men's and women's world No 1. In Beijing China took all six individual table-tennis medals and both team golds too. Since the sport was introduced to the Games in 1988, China has won 20 of the 24 gold medals.

In diving their dominance is all-but absolute, and 2012 may well prove the Games it becomes absolute. In Athens they won six of the eight golds, in Beijing seven of the eight and at last year's world championship it was 10 out of 10. Chinese divers are ranked No 1 in the world in every event. They are the products of a highly centralised, regimented training regime in which divers practice for hour after hour. Crucially, though, it is combined with an open mind to new techniques and coaching innovation.

"The entire world is chasing China," Greg Louganis, the US former four-time gold medallist, told ESPN recently. "It's hard to compete with that. It's a Communist country, that's pretty much all they do, train, train, train. So much of their execution is muscle memory."

The one medal China did not claim in Beijing was the 10m platform, the event in which Tom Daley will compete. Daley has never dived better than in the build-up to the Games, but he will have to come close to perfection to match Qiu Bo, the 19-year-old world champion. Bo's training regime is dedicated even by Chinese standards; his coaches have had to order him to ease off after he suffered a succession of injuries.

The hope for Daley, and Matt Mitcham, the Australian who stood alone among the Chinese gold winners four years ago, is that Bo, not unlike Xiang, has shown the occasional sign of wilting when it matters most. He did so when Daley won the world championship three years ago, and nothing can shield him, or Yang, from the unique pressures an Olympic Games will bring from home and abroad.

On top of the world: China best in Beijing

2008 medals table, top 10:

Gold/Silver/Bronze/Total

China 51/21/28/100

US 36/38/36/110

Russia 23/21/29/73

GB 19/13/15/47

Germany 16/10/15/41

Australia 14/15/17/46

South Korea 13/10/8/31

Japan 9/6/10/25

Italy 8/9/10/27

France 7/16/18/41

Robin Scott-Elliot's predicted top 10 medals table for London 2012:

1. United States

2. China

3. Great Britain

4. Russia

5. Germany

6. South Korea

7. Australia

8. France

9. Japan

10. Italy

China to take a dip in the Olympic medal haul... but diving will save them - Olympic News - Olympics - The Independent

[Korean]

China won't repeat its performance of 2008 Beijing games because the Chinese team doesn't have the home field advantage anymore.

[ChinaToday]

China won't repeat its performance of 2008 Beijing games because the Chinese team doesn't have the home field advantage anymore.

Let see i still think china will win the most gold medal

[phylumchordata]

Indian Sports to be included in Olympics:

Kabaddi,Kho-Kho,Cricket- In all these games India is the dominating nation. If we can have 2 varieties of each(male and female) India can easily avail itself 5-6/6 gold medals at every Olympics plus 2-3 extra gold medals and India will make it to top 10.

[itaskol]

I want to see that china get a football gold metal.（soccer）
but this will never happen. at least not in my life. a very sad fact.
I really like football. but we are really so bad in football.
our football team is our biggst shame....

[kawaraj]

medal count as I predict,

1. China
2. U.S.
3. Great Briton
4. Russia
5. German
6. France
7. Australia
8. Italy
9. Japan
10. Ukraine


let's say if it merit your consideration.

[xuxu1457]

I think 2012
1.USA
2.China
3.Russia
these 3 will all get 30+ golden, 1/3 golden will reach by the three

India will get 1-3 golden go into the top 40

[kawaraj]

I think 2012
1.USA
2.China
3.Russia
these 3 will all get 30+ golden, 1/3 golden will reach by the three

India will get 1-3 golden go into the top 40

you overestimate Russia which is falling faster than expected.

[ChinaToday]

Reality or Strategy? China Plays Down Hopes of Beating the U.S. in Gold-Medal Count

After topping the gold-medal count on home turf in Beijing four years ago, China is loudly lowering expectations of another triumphal performance in London

Was it a reality check or an ingenious tactic borrowed from China’s ancient book of strategy, The Art of War? After topping the gold-medal count on home turf in Beijing four years ago, China is loudly lowering expectations of another triumphal performance in London. China won 51 gold medals in Beijing, outperforming the U.S., which captured 36. But at a press conference in London, a Chinese official noted that former host nations historically have won nearly a third fewer medals in the Olympics following their home-turf performance. “Without home advantage, we face huge difficulties in meeting our gold-medal performance in Beijing,” said the Chinese Olympic delegation’s deputy Xiao Tian.

China has dispatched a downsize team of 396 athletes to London, compared with 639 athletes four years ago. (The Americans have sent 530 athletes this time around.) Still, there are 39 Chinese gold medalists among the London delegation, and China is competing in every sport except for handball, soccer and the equestrian events.

(MORE: China’s Gold Standard)

Scaling back expectations isn’t a new Chinese ploy. Four years ago, as Beijing residents were confidently predicting that China would upset the U.S. at the top of the gold-medal charts, the country’s vice sports minister opined that it would be “impossible” for China to surpass America. The result, of course, was China ahead by 15 gold medals.

Relying on a Soviet-style system that funnels kids into government-run athletic academies whether they have an innate interest in sports or not, China has achieved near domination in several disciplines. The diving team, for instance, will likely claim every one of the eight gold medals on offer. The table-tennis squad is looking for similar supremacy. Commanding performances are also expected in shooting, women’s weight lifting and badminton.

But there are surprising weaknesses in the Chinese armor. Their men’s gymnastics squad, once invincible, could be eclipsed in the team event by the Japanese and Americans, especially with news that pommel-horse specialist Teng Haibin has pulled out of the Games because of a muscle tear in his arm suffered during pre-Olympic training. The women’s squad, meanwhile, displayed its frailty last year, placing third in the World Championships, behind the U.S. and Russia.

(PHOTOS: China’s Sports Machine: Manufacturing the Best)

In Beijing, 38 of the China’s 51 gold medals came from just a handful of sports: diving, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, weight lifting and badminton. All of these sports offer multiple medals, making them ideal picks for Chinese sports officials trying to maximize their gold harvest. In addition, Chinese bureaucrats have poured money into women’s sports because they are relatively underfunded in other countries. In London, the Chinese delegation has 225 women and 171 men.

Not content to rest on its laurels, China has developed top-class athletes in other sports that enjoy little popularity back home. In London, Chinese athletes could reap gold in disciplines ranging from cycling, boxing and judo to trampoline, fencing and rowing. Most of the Chinese athletes competing in these events had never heard of their respective sports until state coaches came calling when they were kids.

The one area where China still has a hard time gaining ground is in what Chinese sports officials like to call “big ball” sports, like soccer and basketball. (Women’s volleyball, however, is a point of strength for the Chinese.) In London, Xiao lamented the perennial underperformance of the Chinese men’s basketball team. But that didn’t stop the delegation from picking as the country’s flag bearer Yi Jianlian, who had a relatively undistinguished career in the NBA before returning home last year. “The flag bearer should represent the image of China well,” said Xiao. “He or she needs to have an impressive record in sports, be tall, handsome and influential.”

(MORE: Can China’s Hurdler Liu Xiang Avoid Injury and Bring Home Gold?)

Height is an obsession of the Chinese state. Since 1984, every single Chinese flag bearer during the opening ceremony has been a male basketball player, as if the country needs a physical reminder that it stands tall in the world. Stature consciousness isn’t just in sports. The premier school for training Chinese diplomats has a height requirement for incoming students. When foreign VIPs visit Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the entrance is invariably flanked by men and women a good foot taller than the average Chinese.

Some Chinese women have grumbled that since their gender brings more gold medals to China, it is unfair that men are charged with bearing the flag. But men’s sports are another fixation of Chinese sports czars, who are desperate for victories in the Olympics’ highest-profile sports: swimming and athletics. Hopes are riding on two pairs of shoulders in London: those of Sun Yang, the world-record holder in the 1,500-m freestyle, and Liu Xiang, the world-record-tying 110-m hurdler whose failure to race in Beijing four years ago broke Chinese hearts. If either Sun or Liu wins, he will score his homeland’s first gold medal for men in these two most popular sports. Some triumphs, it turns out, mean more than others, even in a country that relies on a largely anonymous army of shooters, weight lifters and table-tennis paddlers to send it to the top of the gold medal charts.


Read more: Olympics: China Downplays Beating the U.S. in Gold Medals | Olympics | TIME.com

[aakash_2410]

sad that a 1.2 billion population can only bring out 2 gold medaks and six athletes, where a 5 million pop like Germany can bring out more than India

LMAO! You're obsessed with India mate.

Your country is yet to win individual gold medal in Olympics. You guys can't even win Silver medal with 180 million population whereas much smaller and much poorer African nations do way better than you so let's leave at that.

There's a reason why India doesnt do well in Olympics, because Indians don't pay attention to any sport that is not Cricket.

[ChinaToday]

China's best Olympic hopes in London

Beijing (CNN) -- When the Olympic torch lights up in London on Friday, hundreds of millions of TV screens, laptops and mobile phones will likewise be turned on in China.

Chinese sports fans are expected to watch the world's best athletes compete for medals and fame at the 2012 Summer Games.

Hardly any Chinese expect London to be able to match the spectacular opening ceremony that Beijing choreographed four years ago.

London set for Olympic opener

"They will get the job done but it definitely won't be as good as China did," said Ling Ling, who works for CCTV, the national television network. CCTV plans extensive coverage of many events, including live broadcast of events featuring Chinese athletes.


Lab looks to catch Olympic drug cheats "The Chinese care about the scale of the ceremony," said Jiao Xueqing, a 48-year-entrepreneur in Beijing. "The British care about the spirit of the Olympics."


Chinese athletes carry the burden of their huge nation's hopes and expectations.

Who among China's superstars can excel and live up to the Olympic motto -- Faster, higher, stronger?

I consulted David Yang, a writer at Sports Illustrated China who also serves as editor of the blog site China Sports Review, and we came up with seven athletes worth watching in London.

Liu Xiang

The 29-year-old 110-meter hurdler will aim for his second Olympic gold at the London Olympics. Liu's shocking pullout from the Beijing Olympics remains one of the most memorable events of the 2008 Games. The nation watched aghast as Liu limped off the track after a false start by another runner and pulled out of the competition.

Liu later publicly apologized to the Chinese media, saying he could "do nothing but pull out of the race" because of the recurrence of a foot injury.

"Liu is just coming back from injuries and he proved he can still fly eight years after winning gold in Athens," David Yang tells me. "When I interviewed him last summer, before the World Championships, he seemed really self-confident and had gotten over the Beijing memories."

Sun Yang

Sun Yang, 20, is the lanky world champion who is leading China's 50-member swimming team to London. Sun is China's hope for a gold medal in swimming, just as Liu Xiang was in track and field eight years ago.

Li Na

Li Na, 30, is the first Asian player to win a Grand Slam singles (2011 French Open). The tenacious tennis star is idolized by millions of her compatriots, but Li's maverick streak may also be worth watching. Chinese sports officials reportedly asked Li Na to play doubles as well in London, but she balked, saying she has not played doubles in years and would rather focus on her singles event.

"London will be her last Olympics and it'd be interesting to see whether the late-bloomer can give us another surprise," Yang said.

Lin Dan

Lin Dan, 28, is perhaps the best badminton player in the world. Nicknamed "Super Dan" by his fans, Lin is a four-time world champion, five-time All England champion and the reigning Olympic champion. To defend his title, he may have to face again Lee Chong Wei, the Malaysian star who beat him earlier this year.

"To Chinese badminton fans, the Lin-Lee matchup will be the most anticipated event," said Yang.

Zhang Jike

Zhang Jike, 24, is the reigning table tennis world champion and World Cup winner in singles. Table tennis, or ping pong, no longer enjoys the attention it got 40 years ago, before China opened its door, but it is still widely considered by many in the Chinese media as "guo qiu," or the "national ball game." Millions of Chinese play and watch ping pong.

Zhang is the latest superstar coming out of China's most competitive sport. "He has won every major tournament in singles except the Olympics and Zhang's toughest rivals may be one of his teammates," Yang said.

Ren Cancan

Ren Cancan, 24, is a policewoman and top amateur boxer. Ren is a three-time world boxing champ but she may be better known lately for the controversy about her age.

Ren admitted recently that her actual birthdate is April 26,1986, making her 26, and not January 26, 1988, as had been registered with the international boxing association. The age discrepancy is unlikely to bar Ren from the London Olympics but her frank admission again puts a spotlight on cheating by some Chinese coaches and officials accused of tampering the age of athletes just to win titles and medals.

"To take her first Olympic gold, Ren needs to beat Mary Kom, the five-time world champion from India who carries the hopes of another one-billion nation," opined Yang.

Guo Ailun

Guo Ailun, only 18, is a fast-blooming point guard of the men's basketball team. Although still green and prone to turning over the ball, basketball fans and commentators hail the emergence of stars like Guo.

"He represents a new generation of players that may look less freakish than Yao Ming but could be more entertaining on the court," said Yang.

The big question... how many medals can China win?

Since China is sending a relatively "small" team to London -- nearly 400 athletes, compared to 600 in Beijing -- Team China will be hard pressed to match the 51 gold medals and 100 total medals that it hauled four years ago.

Team leader Xiao Tian acknowledges the challenge.

"We made a calculation that in the last five Olympics, the host country has a reduction of 32% of gold medals and medals in total won at the next Games," Xiao said. "We don't think we will have the same amount of medals as in Beijing. But the Chinese delegation will do its best."

With no home-court advantage, Yang said, "I think 32 golds and 95 medals should be more like it."

Given the time difference between London and Beijing, will Chinese sports fans stay up late at night to watch Olympic events?

"I hope to see the great performances by our Chinese athletes," said Xu Lin, 24, who works in a real estate company in Shandong.

Others say they will surely tune in but only selectively.

Tang Sen, a septuagenarian pensioner and a self-described qiu mi (sports fanatics) enthused: "I will stay up to watch the events I like and the athletes I admire, whether or not they win gold medals."

Taking part, after all, is more important than winning, as another Olympic motto goes.

China's best Olympic hopes in London - CNN.com

China-India Rivalry to Take Backstage at London Olympics

Jul. 27 – The nations of the world converge on Marshgate Lane, Stratford, today to begin the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Between the two rising Asian powers of China and India, there can be little doubt which country’s team will emerge with more glittering medallions. Admittedly enjoying the benefit of competing on their home turf, China garnered a total of 100 medals in Beijing 2008, of which 51 were gold. By contrast, India took home 3.

While China pours resources into creating teams across the board that can demonstrate its world power status, India has long lost its head start in the one sport in which it previously excelled: field hockey. Between 1928 and 1980 India’s field hockey team came in first place eight times. Since then, India did not receive a gold medal until 2008. They will look to repeat this success at this year’s London Olympic Games.

There is one place where the China-India rivalry will assuredly rear its head: the Men’s 10 meter Air Rifle competition. Athens 2004 gold medalist Zhu Qinan, of East China’s Zhejiang Province, was driven to tears on the podium in 2008 as he lost out to Uttarakhand’s Abhinav Bindra.

Already this year, Zhu has once again come second to Bindra in the Doha Asian Championships in shooting. Meanwhile, the rivalry has intensified due to remarks made off the shooting range.

In his book, called A Shot at History, Bindra has said that he “doesn’t like Chinese.”

Both may falter, however, as upstart Niccolo Campriani of Italy, who placed 12th in Beijing, but since won the World Shooting Championship in 2010, also eyes the top spot on the podium.

Nevertheless, this looks like one to watch as India seeks to compete with China beyond the geopolitical and economic realm.

China-India Rivalry to Take Backstage at London Olympics | News, Investment commentary and Geopolitical analysis of China, India and emerging Asia

This is definitely one to watch

[nandla]

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China have dominated most of the times