Does anybody know why fewer medals are being awarded at Beijing (906) than at Athens (926)? I'm guessing that a few sports have been kicked out by the IOC though I don't know what these are. Still far too many medals for silly sports IMHO but that's another story.
There are actually 938 medals to be won this year. However, the 906 medal count is padded. For the 2008 Olmypics the IOC has assumed 32 medal winners will test positive for PEDs, thus the 906.
According to this site:
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/
there were 301 events in 34 sports in 2004, which makes for 903 medals. There may have been exhibition events, which probably aren't counted.
According to this site:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/sports/index.html
there will be 302 events in 34 sports, which makes for 906 medals. There are 9 new events (they list them) and 8 events eliminated (they don't list them). I think table tennis doubles was replaced by a team event, and others may be similar.
to tired to walk wrote:
There are actually 938 medals to be won this year. However, the 906 medal count is padded. For the 2008 Olmypics the IOC has assumed 32 medal winners will test positive for PEDs, thus the 906.
Okay, so if a person who wins a medal tests positive, the medal is then given to the next highest finisher. Thus, medals are still awarded.
There are no longer exhibition events. I think exhibitions ended in 1988 or so.
It is either a medal sport or not.
In boxing, don't both semi-final losers receive a bronze medal? I don't think it works out to 3X the number of events.
Checking further on 2004, the medals awarded were:
Gold 301
Silver 305
Bronze 327
Total 933
Note that there can be multiple silver and bronze medals given in track due to ties, especially the high jump and pole vault. Also boxing gives two bronze medals, one to each of the semi-final losers. I'm too lazy to look at other sports.
Tedrick P wrote:
In boxing, don't both semi-final losers receive a bronze medal? I don't think it works out to 3X the number of events.
Good point. I guess the team events also inflate the total, so the number of medals is much more than three times the number of events. The total for Beijing will probably be higher than Athens. According to this they have taken delivery of 3,000+ medals. I wonder what happens to the ones they don't need.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=48806I thought of this later.
Every event that was added had to be matched either by an event being dropped or the number of participants reduced. For instance, cycling added BMX for men and women, but dropped the kilometer and 500m time trials to maintain the same number of athletes.
The exception was the women's steeple where no event was taken for the athletics program (maybe some start positions were reduced elsewhere).
Team medals count as 1 medal. Although obviously all members of the team get a medal, it is really tallied as 1 medal (or 3 medals).
Besides boxing, do other combat sports give 2 bronzes? I say let them fight it out for the bronze!
Judo gives two bronzes too. I think there was a tie for bronze in swimming in 2004. I couldn't find any ties for silver, so I think the silver count that I gave above should be 301.