What it takes to be a super power?

Ye’s Shiwen of China swam the last 50m of the freestyle leg in 28.93 seconds in the 400 meters individual medley, compared to the 29.1 seconds of  USA’s Ryan Lochte in the men’s 400 meters individual medley event of the London olympics.  US coach promptly responded to the feet stating the performance is ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disturbing’. One would think why this spontaneous response instead of waiting for the results of usual tests to clear any doubt about the Chinese athlete. Probably the attempt was to create a psychological pressure on Chinese athletes since of late they are winning gold medals in swimming events which US considers as their forte?

In 2008 Beijing summer Olympics China finished with 51 gold medals and 100 total medals. USA finished with 36 gold medals and 110 total medals. In 2012 London summer Olympics USA finished with 46 gold medals and 104 total medals while China finished with 38 gold medals and 88 total medals. Traditionally the country which gets the most number of gold medals tops the medal tally table rather than the country with the most number of medals. China finished on top in 2008 Beijing Olympics. Now Americans have proved a point. No wonder US officials are upset and wanted to put pressure on the Chinese athletes in the early stages of the London Olympic games. This proxy war prompted me to have a look at the medal tally over the years. The table below shows the country which finished with most gold medal and total medal since start of the modern Olympics in 1896.

It is clear that USA was performing very well in the initial events except for the 1908 and 1936 in which the host countries were topping the table. The cold war era (late 40’s to early 90’s) saw a fierce competition between USA and erstwhile USSR. USSR was able to dominate in most of the events till the collapse of Soviet Union and again one can see USA dominating in the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics. Meanwhile China was catching up finishing second in the Athens Olympics.

It is clear that if you want to be a super power the leadership has to be on all fronts including sports. During the cold war era USSR went a great to deal to show the world that they are the super power in sports as well where their medal tally in Olympics can’t be disputed. It is no surprise that China, now economically powerful, doesn’t want to lag behind in sports and has been proving a point. So what to conclude, is it the urge to be the super power which drives them to top the medal tally or supremacy in economic status that brings in better performance by their athletes? But economically superior European countries at the time of USSR collapse could have capitalized on their performance to improve their medal tally in subsequent events. But it didn’t happen. Is it fair to conclude that, it must be the drive to show supremacy in all fields – economy, defence, sports, entertainment, science and technology which must be driving USA and China to score over one another? Let’s now wait for 2016 in Rio. Four years is a long time for a new super power to emerge!

Year	Host	Total	Gold
1896	Athens	Greece	USA
1900	Paris	France	France
1904	St. Louis	USA	USA
* 1906	Athens	France	France
1908	London	Great Britain	Great Britain
1912	Stockholm	Sweden	USA
1920	Antwerp	USA	USA
1924	Paris	USA	USA
1928	Amsterdam	USA	USA
1932	LA	USA	USA
1936	Berlin	Germany	Germany
1948	London	USA	USA
1952	Helsinki	USA	USA
1956	Melbourne	USSR	USSR
1960	Rome	USSR	USSR
1964	Tokyo	USSR	USA
1968	Mexico	USA	USA
1972	Munich	USSR	USSR
1976	Montreal	USSR	USSR
1980	Moscow	USSR	USSR
1984	LA	USA	USA
1988	Seoul	USSR	USSR
1992	Barcelona	Ex-USSR	Ex-USSR
1996	Atlanta	USA	USA
2000	Sydney	USA	USA
2004	Athens	USA	USA
2008	Beijing	China	USA
2012	London	USA	USA
* Intercalated games