August 2008 – Page 6

The Olympic Medal Table race–more golds or more medals?

Who's got first? What? Second, third base.

A ritual source of controversy surrounding the Olympics is ‘how to rank’ the countries that have medals–most golds or most medals? The IOC currently (but unofficially) lists medals in the order of ‘most Golds’ first, where as many in the US media list ‘total Medals’ as their ranking guideline. So who is right?

Depends.

Some small minds feel it is all a conspiracy based on political underpinnings, but the truth is actually a bit stranger. Officially, the IOC does not believe in a ‘medal table’. It’s not something they ‘officially’ produce.

Strictly speaking, medal tables aren’t supposed to exist. According to the Olympic Charter, “The IOC and the OCOG (the local Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games) shall not draw up any global ranking per country.” Instead, the host stadium is supposed to display a “roll of honor” of the individual winners.

That wording was inserted into the charter in 1924 after organizers in some cities began ranking countries.

However, staring in 1992 the IOC started to release some tables, and when they did it was in the ‘gold first’ format. As the IOC says ‘nothing is official’ they don’t really take a policy one way or the other (though they do list past Olympics by the ‘gold first’ standard).

The Chinese media has taken the position that ‘One Gold is worth more than 1000 Silvers’, but others feel this sort of measuring system shortchanges the athletes. For example, countries that have no shot at gold will cut all funding for a specific program that has a chance at Bronze at best. A ‘gold or nothing’ attitude leaves some so-so athletes from getting the chance to develop. It also allows some countries with a ’super star’ to overshadow a country with a more developed and roboust sporting infrastructure.

For example, at present, Tunisia has 1 gold and 0 silvers and 0 bronzes. The next on the list is Hungary with 4 silvers and 1 bronze, followed by Belarus with 3 silvers and 7 bronzes. Who is having a better Olympics? Tunisia, Hungary or Belarus?

We’ll see when it ends. There are 302 events this Olympics and 185 have already produced a medal. Quite a few more to go.

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Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell–what the heck does Usain and Asafa mean?

The Jamaican newspapers have asked a pretty interesting question–what kind of name is Usain and Asafa, the first names of the two Jamaican sprinting stars?

The name ‘Usain’ was picked out for the sprinter by his aunt, Betsy Davis.

When The Star contacted her yesterday, she said that she could not immediately recall what the name meant, jokingly stating it was 22 years ago that she chose it. She did, however, mention that the runner’s pet name, ‘Vijay’, was a Hindi word/name meaning ‘victory’.

While attempts to contact the star (Asafa Powell’s) parents were not successful, postings on a website dedicated to the former 100m world record holder revealed that the name ‘Asafa’, means ‘To rise to the occasion’. It is of African origin.

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Liu Xiang pulls up and drops out of Olympics

China is in shock. Defending gold medalist Liu Xiang of China, the great hope for a Chinese gold in track and field, has pulled up injured in a preliminary of the 110m hurdles and dropped out of the Olympics. Most of China is in utter and complete shock. In fact thousands left the Birds Nest stadium after he pulled out of the race.

“Liu Xiang has two injuries, one in his foot and one in his leg,” his coaches told a news conference.

“One of the injuries is an accumulated injury. In the past he has not dropped out of any competition easily.

“His right heel injury has been a problem since six years ago, even before the Athens Olympics.

In China Liu Xiang is as popular as Yao Ming–perhaps even more popular as Yao has to compete with Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, but Liu Xiang sort of stands alone (and is also seen endorsing products, in the society pages, etc). This is a major blow to the Chinese hopes for track and field glory, but many folks who follow athletics were expecting something like this. They knew of his injury and the absolutely sick amount of pressure that was placed on Liu to win gold.

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The Olympics curse of Matt Emmons?

You might have heard the story of Matt Emmons who was oh so close to a Gold in the Athens Olympics. He only had to hit the target in the general vicinity of the bullseye to win, but when he started shooting he shot the wrong target and lost.

Well it’s deja vu all over again. He had to get basically a 6 out of 10 possible to clinch a gold today, and his gun misfired causing him to lose one shot and get 4th place in the overall.

And you thought Dan Jansen had it bad.

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Where is Michael Phelps father Fred Phelps?

At home in Maryland, apparently. He’s been tracked down by the Baltimore Sun but has refused interview requests. Just for background, the family has had a bit of a rough time with estrangement and whatnot, but things do appear to be better now. It’s just the Senior Phelps didn’t want to distract from the attention due his son.

“This is just about Michael,” he said. “This is his glory, his time to shine, and I want him to get everything he wants.”

Rest assured, while Phelps is in the Beijing pool, his father is paying close attention, cheering from back in Maryland.

“I’m just on pins and needles every time he hits the water,” Fred Phelps said.

UPDATE : New story and photo here.

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85% of frequent flyers want special 'childrens' section on planes

First, Business, Coach or Kids? That could be your options on airplanes if some frequent flyers had their way. 85% in a recent poll suggest it is time for a special kids-only section on planes.

Little ones go to the rear of the plane

I have to confess that even I have thought this might be a good idea. A few rows of each plane reserved for kids and parents. It would, of course, be the craziest section of the plane, but it would also give some of the other folks more peace of mind on their flights.

I’ve done a number of long hauls (i.e. 12 hour+ flights) and when there is a kid behind you you just know you aren’t in for a good night’s sleep. Of course, it’s a kid. It’s what kids do, but it can still be kind of annoying. Of course the most annoying is when the adult traveling with them adopts a “I don’t care about anybody” attitude and lets the kid cry or kick and moan without any intervention. Most frequent flyers can deal with kids, but none can deal with a parent who lets them run feral in the plane.

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Pandora Internet Radio to shutter their service soon?

A pretty interesting tech article in the Post today about the 900lb gorilla in the room for Internet radio. Despite some of the best traffic numbers in their company’s short history (thank you to the iPhone) the start-up company Pandora may soon have to shutter their service.

“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. “This is like a last stand for webcasting.”

At issue is the onerous rate that Internet radio stations have to pay for their services.

Last year, an obscure federal panel ordered a doubling of the per-song performance royalty that Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies.

Traditional radio, by contrast, pays no such fee. Satellite radio pays a fee but at a less onerous rate, at least by some measures.

As for Pandora, its royalty fees this year will amount to 70 percent of its projected revenue of $25 million, Westergren said, a level that could doom it and other Web radio outfits.

I’ve always said the short term greed of the existing content players could kill the medium of Internet radio before it really got its start. No where in the computations are the added per listener cost of Internet radio–it costs more to have more people listen, unlike traditional radio which has a one off broadcasting hardware cost no matter if 1 or 1000 people listen to their station.

Sen. Jesse Helms brokered the last Internet radio survival package but he has passed away. Some on Capitol Hill are trying to find a solution, but the recording industry’s deep pockets full of cash going into the re-election campaigns of many members is hard to ignore. This is one issue in which money talks far more than Republican or Democrat (one of the worst on this issue is the Democrat John Conyers but one of the ones trying to save Internet radio is the Democrat Howard Berman)

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