You should have seen it. She even had a very Chinese name (I forgot it). It made me wonder if she signed up for the wrong team, or took the wrong door in the stadium.

despite that, his general knowledge.

i would bet that more than 50% of all non asian players in table tennis are natural chinese playing for the other teams,
Brazil just now has a chinese woman that met the criteria for naturalization and played table tennis for Brazil for the first time.

As most of the european nations have now Brazilian naturals in their soccer team squad. (do i need to name them?)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-07/30/c_131746711.htm

almost a third of the woman are Chinese born, and 12 of the men.

Oh, I didn't know that. It's still strange though, what is it with Chinese that makes them so good at table tennis?

general interest

the same reason brazilians plays well soccer, americans basketball, australians rugby, and so on.

I would imagine that every chinese kid has his own racket, as here we all have soccer balls.

Incredible table-tennis between Ovtcharov and Maze!
Next up: Basketball - USA vs. Tunisia...

Thoughts regarding China's performance in this Olympics:

First the issue of Chinese-born players on other teams, particularly Ping Pong. My Chinese buddy told me that the selection tourney for the Chinese team had over 200 competitors, and a maximum of 2 from each country are allowed to compete. Thus, Chinese players become naturalized citizens of places like Singapore, so that they can have a chance to compete. He called them traitors, but I guess I can see why someone would do that.

Secondly, the medal count. I was cursing the Chinese for being tops in the medal count (although that might have changed since last night), but I was told that most of the sports Chinese excel at (ping pong, weightlifting, air rifle) were at the beginning of the Olympics, while track and field will start soon and swimming is just finishing. So I would imagine the US will start to pull ahead of China once these things get started. Last I saw, GB was at 20 in the medal count. Poor showing from the hosts.

Chris, you shouldn't bring politics into the Olympics. That is kind of the whole point, to escape the petty political bickering, and cheer for whatever country you like best. You disagree with China's policies, fair enough. But don't try to convince us that we are aiding human rights violations because we are supporting a country we are born in or live in.

China is only leading if you look at total medal count... US has more golds.
I know that many media outlets, particularly in the US, sort by total medals as opposed to gold, then silver, then bronze, but I never understood how that makes any sense.
1st place is worth just as much as 3rd, but 4th is worthless?

Sorry, that's wrong... I was looking at the medal count in Google, which is weirdly aligned. They are tied in total medals, but China has way more golds, so clearly ahead.

Aha noobs only total noobs would waste time watching TV when you could be hacking halo 4 like a boss like me, or getting a million wins on warlight, noobs.

@wigibob No, that is not what I think will happen, but what I hope will happen. :) Still, it isn't good news that GB is down so far.

@ChrisCMU As much as I am bias against China's current policies, do you really need to go party bashing?

In any case, I currently think the PDRK might get more gold medals that the RoK, but will lose the overall medals.

The hosts aren't that well known in the competitions that have reached the end stage so far though. When the rowing and sailing finish that should boost the GB count also the cycling. In track and field GB aren't the strongest but should collect more medals than in the sports such as Judo that have been completed.

Also the GB womens football team is one to watch. The English team is always there or there abouts in football and the GB team just beat the Brazilians. Whether the addition of the Welsh will give them the extra that they need to beat the Americans remains to be seen - but they are playing at home.

I wish to see comparison event by event since last olympics.
Is the best way to make projections.

But China is getting stronger and stronger in other sports. Like woman Judo and Swimming (they now have the world sensation), so i feel like they still leading.
USA is loosing certain medals too, for example the 4x100 in swimming.

gold for GB womens rowing and bronze for GB rowing mens eight :-) finally getting some medals on the table

Why does this site not have edit abilities?

I realized I should have just not mentioned my thoughts on China at all but I cannot remove them. Just drop it and move on, sorry.

It's all good, man, and feel free to comment on China in terms of their Olympic ability.

I saw last night (might have changed) where the US is now first in total medals, although still quite far behind in gold. Hopefully this will change.

China "doesnt dope" its true noobs

@ChrisCMU Sorry, I should have been clearer. I was more complaining about the republican party comment which is why I said about party bashing. There was an added line of thinking in there, but I only had out on my mind and not in words. I am not a fan of China's censorship policies which is why I am alright with the China comments. I will try to be clearer with my words next time.

@[中国阳朔]TexasJohn I think that the United States has yet to have a lead over China in the medal count, but I could be wrong. Right more it is China over the US. (China has 30 total and 15 gold compared to 29 total and 10 gold for the US.)

@FD Likely the US sorts by total medals because it shows the performance of the United States better with higher numbers. The US will get medals, but might not always be on top in gold, silver, and bronze. Thus, having it by medal count shows the results better that just by medal rank in my opinion.

If you ask me the true metal count to look at is after #2 because even though I'm american its kind of an unfair domination when it comes to population. China has above 1/7 of the worlds population and thats alot of athletes to choose from and the US has 300 million. Anyways after the US and China theres actually a tight race for medals. The true suprising thing if you ask me is that russia doesnt have alot of gold.
If you look at googles medal count its screwed up. It may just be me, but the way I thought ranking was is by the total amount not most gold or anything.
1. US (43)
2. China (42)
3. Russia (23)
4. UK (22)
5. Japan (21)
6. Germany (20)
7. France (19)
8. Korea (16)
9. Australia(14)
10. Italy (12)

No ties, yet

82nd, I think many medal counts use some sort of complicated mathematical equations to figure out who is in the lead. Something like gold = 3, silver = 2, bronze = 1. By this, a country could have more points for fewer total medals, because they have more golds.

Also, it seems US is currently in the lead, with 43 total medals and 21 golds. China is right behind them with 42 total medals and 20 golds.