Sports - USA,The Medal Superpower

Athletics and swimming stars have dominated
USA has won 894 gold medals since 1896

China and Russia could make the race more interesting this year

When the Russians were invited to participate in the 1948 London Olympics, they sent only their coaches and trainers. Their job was to look around, observe world class athletes and their techniques and take notes.

And when the Soviet Union athletes returned to the Olympics four years later in Helsinki, after staying away for four decades, for the first time there were two athletes’ villages — a very unfortunate side-effect of the Cold War.

Bitter battle


That was virtually the beginning of the bitter battle for the top rung in the medals table at the Olympics. The allure of the glamorous title ‘Sporting Superpower’ was too hard for countries to resist.

China is now in hot pursuit of this glamorous crown.

Right from the time triple jumper James Connolly won the first gold of the Modern Olympics at Athens in 1896, the USA has been a major force at the Summer Games, leading the medals tally more often than any other nation.

The Americans topped the medal tally at the first Games with 11 golds, just one more than host Greece, but it pushed the gold count to 70 in 1904 when it hosted the Games at St. Louis with Cuba a surprise second with five golds. With the venue being very far away and travelling too expensive for the Europeans, only 12 countries took part in those Games.

The Americans’ all-time gold count at the Olympics, 894, is also more than double that of its nearest rival, the Soviet Union with 395.

But the US and the Soviet Union have had some interesting battles for the top perch, with the Russians first claiming the honour at the 1956 Melbourne Games and then holding it a few times till they broke away into several smaller nations shortly after the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The US was been a comfortable leader at the last three Games.

Athletics and swimming have been the backbone of the American domination, having contributed around 500 of the USA’s nearly 900 golds.

Legends like the seven-gold swimming machine Mark Spitz, athletes Jesse Owens, Al Oerter and Carl Lewis, who have played a big role in this American success, immediately spring to mind.

And at Athens 2004, of the 36 golds bagged by the US, swimming (12) and athletics (8) provided a major share.

Big stars but….


Michael Phelps alone with be chasing eight medals in Beijing, the track and field stars are still as dominant as ever and the basketball stars, also a major source of gold for long, are once again in fine touch after messing up their act in Athens.

The US is also looking at cycling, shooting, rowing, archery and fencing to boost its total this time. But still, it will not be easy handling China at home.

China, which finished second in Athens with 32 golds, has been studying the Americans’ progress very closely. And unlike the US, it has added more variety and events to fuel its race to the top of the pack.

Russia has also regrouped, there is more Government support for sport these days, and will be banking on its women — the synchronised swimmers, rhythmic gymnasts and track and field stars including pole-vault’s leading lady Yelena Isinbayeva — for a bulk of its medals.

All this should make the race to the top, the most interesting ever.