Japan - a total of one athletics medal. What are they doing wrong?

genetics do them in and they dont care enough to dope

Yuka Suzuki while never really a contender pretty much hung a few seconds behind the leading five for the entire marathon. She ran pretty solid, especially knowing she pretty much had no real chance at beating at those in front of her.

Likewise Akira Akasaki ran great in the men's race - 6th in a sizable PR, I think one of only two or three men to PR in the race. In fact the Japanese men's marathon team were the first to have all 3 finish with 6th, 13th, 23rd.

Ryuji Miura did well in the steeple placing 8th showing a good level of consistency the last 3 years

I wouldn't say they choked, other than Kitaguchi who was expected to medal?

What's with the 10k and 5k women who always lead or right near the front for several laps and then are almost lapped by the end? What's the strategy there? They run like Freshmen in high school sometimes.

They value honor and integrity.

Western nations lack this trait and are willing to dope in order to medal.

If we could exchange batons like them we would never lose a relay

誰も議論しない

誰も怒らない

はいはい

Not putting resources into a stupid 10 day competition that means nothing, but rather building their economy, making sh!t that works as it was designed to, educating their children to lead the future world economy, not killing each other in random shootings. You know, important stuff.

あるいは学校を銃撃する

They cannot run well outside of Japan. I hear these great depth in marathon. And they even had 100m sprinters. But they are non-story at world stage. I just cannot find a good explanation.

They have a great culture of athletics in Japan, a lot of people participate and follow the sport. They have enough integrity to not dope or import foreign athletes like the gulf states or the west (Portugal and Spain in looking at you). They came in fourth in the overall medal table with 20 golds so I think they’re doing fine. With more money and investment in athletics they can probably find a few more medal contenders but they’re doing fine as a society so their money is obviously being put to good use. They have a high educated and unified population, a safe society and have arguably the best infrastructure system in the world. Unlike countries like China or here in the US where billions are being spent in sport while the country falls apart physically and socially.

Google "Where was MeThAmphetaMine invented?"

I love Japan, but to characterize them as doing "fine as a society" is a little off as they're facing literal existential crisis:

theguardian.com

Births in Japan hit record low as government warns crisis at ‘critical state’

Associated Press

Birthrate continues to fall as young people increasingly reluctant to have children due to bleak job prospects, cost of living and work culture

Link:www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/28/...

Can't speak to the gulf states, but it's not Portugal/Spain's fault that they did a much better job at expanding their territory than the Japanese did! All of Portugal's (few) medalists were home-grown.

Pedro Pichardo, who won silver for Portugal in the men's triple jump, was born and raised in Cuba and competed for that nation until 2017, when he was 23. He went AWOL from the Cuban team while at a meet in Germany that year, and was granted Portuguese citizenship in 2019.

There were high hopes for a medal in the 4 x 100m. Japan has medaled in that event before. Their anchor, Ueyama, got the baton very close to the lead but was simply run down by faster men.

They seem good at only a few events.

Only 3 can medal, and there are some tough marathoners and opponents in other events.

Ummm, Japan has lots of pros and cons but their economy has been stagnate for 30 years now. Check your facts before making ignorant statements.

npr.org

Japan had a vibrant economy. Then it fell into a slump for 30 years. : Planet Money

Last month, Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. That is a really big deal, because it means that one of the spookiest stories in modern economics might finally have an ending. Back in th...

Link:www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1197958583/japa...

The whole developed/developing world is facing a demographic crisis. Japan’s fertility rate of 1.3 is only slightly lower than the US’ 1.6 and Canada’s 1.4. The only reason why we here in the West are not facing the same type of “existential crisis” is because of mass migration, that’s the only difference between the demographic situation in Japan and the West. They are, however, aging gracefully and adapting to the new realities while keeping their culture and social harmony. They’re Japanese now and they will still have their culture and identity in 100 years, even if their current population halves. Meanwhile we here in the West confront this issue of lower fertility rates by importing millions of people a year and all the problems that it brings all because it benefits the big corporations and the rich. So yes, the Japanese are doing fine as a society. I point remains about countries like the US spending billions on things like sport while our society falls apart. Schools are physically falling a part due to lack of repair, roads and other physical infrastructure are in decay and crumbling. Society is getting more and more divided and unequal. The billions spent at the Olympics could be used for those things.

it's normal in history to have migrations, genocides, genetic replacements, etc. Evident in written history, and pre-historic population genetics. It will always happen. It's natural selection for the human race. But not for Japan. Japan is closed and remains the same as always. Hope this helps.