London 2012: women earn more medals, compete in more events, and represent more countries

Clearly, the U.S. has the best women in the world.

As the London Olympics near their end, one of the biggest, most significant storylines is the dominance of America’s female athletes. There’s no other word for it. It’s because of the women — not the men — that the United States stands atop the medal table. – The Modesto Bee

Our ladies have also pulled in twice as many gold medals as the men.

And that’s despite the fact that 10 percent fewer women’s medals have been awarded so far. – Seattle PI

 

Altogether, women represent 44% of the Olympic athletes, up from 26% at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Thirty-four countries sent more women than men to compete.

Finally, a nice article from USA Today exploring this historic shift:

Something historic and even a little strange is happening in the 2012 London Games. A nation that has been known for wielding a strong male chauvinistic sports streak has fallen in love with its female athletes. And it’s not just the Brits. American female athletes, outnumbering their male counterparts for the first time in an Olympics, are having their finest Games so far, outpacing the men in gold medals 18-10. Overall, they’ve won 53% of all U.S. medals, up considerably from 31% in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

 
Laura Asadauskaite crosses the line first to win the gold medal in the women’s Modern Pentathlon competition on Day 16 at London 2012. The women’s pentathlon was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. (Photo: London2012)

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2 Comments

  1. That lie about shared use advocates running off seals does not hold water. That would be a federal offense and our local Federal officer is real tight on that. The seal nuts have sent over 1000 claims to NOAA in the last 8 years.about seal abuse and there have resulted a dozen investigations and zero convictions. You can send your own Freedom of Information Act request and get the answer yourself. If you ever got in water with the seals you would find out they share very nicely and will take naps underwater in front of snorkelers and even play with us. Nobody is trying do scatter the seals, because we don’t want them on all the other beaches, stupid! The seals did not start getting out on the sand until the 90’s when Sea World started depositing rescued rehab harbor seals in La Jolla to salt a temporary reserve. Of course hand raised seals did not fear people. You can do you own FOIA on that too, as I have done.
    You will not find any raging debate any more because our prices for souvenirs were lower than the vigilantes and they abandoned the sidewalk sales on weekends to only show on weekdays when they could have a monopoly again.
    The seals are not on the beach on a hot summer day. They can sleep on an iceberg but cannot sit on hot sand all day, like people like to do. The Truth: If you want to see seals this time of year get there at 7 am, or 9 pm. Or get in the water and meet them where they are at ease with people. But be careful – you might learn something you didn’t want to know.

  2. All sidewalk vendors should be banned from this location. THEY are the problem. not the seals. not seals and humans sharing the beach. There has NEVER been any harm done to seal or human from shared use. The supposed “seal protectors” need to get real and admit that there is no threat of danger to the seals. their population continues to rise to levels that challenge the local environments capacity to sustain them. The city refuses to uphold their obligation to maintain healthy conditions at this location because of all the political tension and well, who knows why else they refuse to do their jobs. One thing is for certain though… Seal activists need to quit scamming the public for donations and then using those funds to sue the city. This is bad for our community. Yelling at people with bull horns, which is illegal, also scares the seals they’re supposedly trying to protect.
    Pro access people will have no reason to be there if the anti-human groups disappear. lets get real and address the real situation happening at this beach… it’s the people vs. the people and has nothing to do with the seals.

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