Originally Posted by
Bremsstrahlung
The team that we have sent to compete are the best at their respective sports in our country.
Not sure if Captain Obvious has mentioned it, but other countries also send their best athletes.
As it stands, we are ranked 9th in the world on Gold Medals. Is this poor?
The 8 nations above us:
USA - 324 Million people
Great Britain - 65 Million people
China - 1.38 Billion people
Russia - 143 Million people
Germany - 80 Million people
France - 66 Million people
Japan - 126 Million people
Italy - 59 Million people
Australia - 24 Million people
Based on our population of people to select our best athletes, I think we are doing reasonably well.
Now, I agree, it is absolutely disappointing and questions have to be asked why our athletes aren't quite performing to their personal best levels. Personal bests should be their target, if that gets them a medal, great! If not, well at least they've given their best.
Some body has to win, somebody has to lose. There is no competition if only the best competes. Why do we even send an Olympic team? Why do Australia even send a team to the world cup? Why do we even play as part of the A- League? After all, we aren't the best at any of these things.
The media has raised the expectations and the Sydney Olympics have somewhat given us false hope. Particularly around our swim team. Sure some of them failed to do their best, yes that is disappointing and questions will be asked. But does that take anything away from them for being the best Australia has, or being in the top 5 in the world for something?
When Messi plays, when he fails to score, does that mean he's not a great player anymore? has he failed? Are people celebrating his failure? He can't even win Copa America.