The tally board at the moment has China with most Golds, followed by the USA and then Oz.

In Medals of all colours it is America with 65, China with 63 and Oz with 33.

But when you look at the populations they draw athletes from, Oz is SO FAR AHEAD as to leave the whole world behind.

1 Aussie medal per 606,000 Aussies.
1 American medal per 4.9 million Yanks
1 Chinese medal per 19 million Chinks.

One Aussie medal is worth 7.6 American ones and 31.6 Chinese ones.

Yeeeeehhaaaaa !

Chew your shorts.

NB* The Plucky Poms are coming up fast and might be on the board (somewhere behind Lithuania) by thursday.

Yeah, but GB has as many golds as Oz which is the important thing , in a country that pisses down with rain ALL the time and most people watch the TV!

Yeeeeehhaaaaa !

Damn I just checked and wondered why Germany isn´t on #3 anymore. Damn you failing rowing team. Well guess we still have to resort to the winter olympics.

It was a goad, Brian. Just to get our UK buddies going.

I sit here watching the Ben Her girls in the velodrome trying to murder one another with bike spokes, and outside it is thick with snow (well it was for a day, a few days ago).

Australians are ALL sporting. There are only 1000 who actually play anything. The rest watch the TV too.

But you do have three times as many as we do and - important - we have lots of Greeks and Italians here. ! Imported to make pizza and greek salad.

But at least they can go out when there's nothing on! I can't remember the last decent summer here. It's raining right now and is as gloomy as a February (in blazing August). I'm surprised anyone plays outdoor sports here at all.

interesting to see a breakdown based on population, has there been one for investment?

barry gaynor

Invstment. Good one.

The UK has piles of lottery money invested in their team.

I see the UK has caught up with Oz in Golds.

Oz 20 million: UK 65+ million.

It is raining here.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) hasn't received a lot of funding for this year's Olympics. In fact, Australia's paralympic swimming team has received more funding than our Olympic team.

A couple of our men were unlucky. Eamon Sullivan and Grant Hackett missed out on a gold a medal by less than a second. Our sailors in the men's 49er's competition would have won gold if they weren't ravaged by freaky weather (they were only metres from the finish line when freaky weather conditions caused their boat to capsize.

Then there's the issue of Michael Phelps. His endurance levels looked as if they were inhuman, thus causing me to suspect he may have taken a performance enhancing agent. For example, two of the races he competed in were held one after the other, yet he was able to win both of them without looking as if he was strained by the workload. The other swimmers looked to be in just as good condition as him, but their endurance levels weren't anywhere as high. It wouldn't surprise me if he took EPO and a really good masking agent.

In conclusion, I think Australia's performance has been commendable.

I guess I will have to eat my shorts, as the UK has levelled in the Goldstakes. Oz is still ahad in the overall medals - just - but it is really good to see the UK team fighting back after several Games in the doldrums.

Oz is still far and away the best per capita. But does that satisfy? Not for our officials who are moaning and demanding more money, as usual. I think the top/star athletes who earn $50 mil from endorsements should chip in maybe 90% of their earnings being as I - the taxpayer - chipped in so much for their training costs.

As for EPO or whatever, the Jamacan chap in he 100mrs (Bolt) seems to be a phenomenon. He is as far ahead of his peers with his perfomance as Phelps.

That was weird. At the end he hold his hands against the wind and had time for taunting. Damn, arrogantly fast.

Ah well after a lot of German athletes fail, at least we had the world strongest man in our team. He hoisted 203kg in Snatch and 258kg in Clean and Jerk for a winning total of 461kg.








Dedicated to his wife who died last year in a car crash.

Finland was a powerhouse during the early 20th Century. Its population was (and still is) less than 5 million. Therefore, on a per capita basis, it would be one of the most successful nations in the history of the modern Olympic Games.