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Thailand's Best Summer Olympics Ever

Posted by Stuart at 08:54 PM on August 31, 2004

Like most Americans, I have always been a big fan of the Summer Olympics. One of the best experiences of my life was attending events of the 1996 Games in Atlanta with my family and Paul.

This time around, unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to watch much of the Games. I did get to see parts of Thailand's "Best Games Ever" as their female weightlifters from Isaan pulled in 2 golds and 2 bronzes. Thailand won a national record 8 medals with additional victories in boxing and Taekwondo. You can see Thailand's full results on the Sports Illustrated site.

Of course those 8 medals seem puny compared to the dominating 103 medals won by the US. But I started thinking to myself that medal count alone doesn't tell the whole story. The US is a much bigger country than Thailand, so of course they should win more medals. Then I realized that the US is also a much richer country, so again it should not be surprising that they won the medal count. Sure enough, thanks to a Google search, I see that I am not alone in my thinking. For example, there is a site that ranks countries according to medals won per capita. (The Bahamas comes in first on that tally, while the US is #34.) And there are others that suggest that medal count should be done as a function of the country's GDP.

And then to top it all off, almost all of the sports are Western ones. One article I just found suggests we give Olympic medals in drum dancing, hand fishing, wood chopping, and camel riding.

In any case, Thailand is hoping to capitalize on its success by planning to apply to host the 2016 games. The Straits Times has an interesting article about this idea, along with the story of the Thai boxer who won gold.

Manus, who had urged fans back home to watch him fight on television at his family's home to encourage the spirits of the house to help him win, built up a lead in the early rounds and protected it in the fourth round.

And now, on a more personal note, one of my best high school friends has been living in Athens for the past 2 years. Last week, his experiences at the Olympics were written up in our hometown newspaper. The best part of the article relates his accusation that Sheryl Swoopes' kid stole his American flag at one of the women's basketball games.

And finally, on a really personal note, I got an email from my father today in which he said, "I always like watching the Olympics--always have regretted not being able to make the team in '64--just wasn't good enough, but it was really fun trying." That year, he competed in the Olympic trials in three (yes, three) sports: the marathon, fencing, and Pentathalon. Of course, making the Olympic team would have been really cool, but I think going to the Trials was a huge accomplishment. I am very proud of him!