hmmm China seem to be getting better, and America is doing worse.... those sneaky chinese folk must be up to something
- Largest country by population in the world
- No longer impoverished
- Has the most medals
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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I think there are still some events where the GDR holds a record number of medals lmao
Largest country by population in the world
Now the second largest. 
The same sort of skepticism comes up whenever someone mentions new Chinese technical innovations or the fact that China now leads the world in published scientific studies- it is either stolen from the West or the quality of output is low so they must be gaming the system somehow. They can not comprehend a world where American superiority can be challenged without deceit.
I have a close friend who is so adamant in their anti-China rhetoric. Their eyes get all intense whenever they talk about it. They've told me on multiple occasions how dogshit Chinese academics are and how dogmatic and repetition-focused their approaches are and how it doesn't let them think critically. This is, presumably, opposed to Americans who can think critically about things that are good and well established theory because they're illiterate and don't bother to read established theory.
I mean I have a family member who is a famous professor, and they often participates in PhD defences around the world. They have a lot of negative stuff to say about Chinese academics. Says they're incredibly dogmatic and rigid in their approach to writing and making PhDs, they barely do anything new, but are instead following a pre-planned path set for them by their mentor. Like they don't really do any new research for PhDs, is their experience.
On the other hand China built a hospital in 7 days and 10s of thousands of miles of high speed rail, so maybe the Chinese are doing something right.
It unfortunately is literally just racism. Asians as interchangeable insectoid hivemind incapable of creativity whose individual lives have no value vs. the pure beautiful brilliant whites, each soul a precious pearl of unquantifiable value. You see this archetype everywhere once you know it. It is also objectively total bullshit as anybody who knows anything about, say, Shenzhen can attest.
Which should be pretty easy to square simply by observing the people and country around you.
Soon enough anglos media will publish medals per million people stats or something
Freedom and democracy weighted medal count
The IOC banned all of the best Russian wrestlers, many of whom were likely to medal (if not win). They ruined what was going to be an amazing tournament. I hate the olympics.
The basement of the Chinese cum factories has a hidden mermaid egg pool
The US is pretty shit at any sport where they can't just outresource everyone else, which they have been able to do for most Olympic sports for a long time. They probably haven't been the best in baseball for a while, the rest of the world has arguably already caught up to the US in basketball, women's soccer is looking pretty wide open now, and they can't develop technical men's soccer player to save their lives lol. They rely entirely on just being richer than everyone
the rest of the world has arguably already caught up to the US in basketball
without balkanization this would've happened in 1992
I need Yugoslavia to reunite for many reasons, but the main one beings to humble the Americans at basketball
This is a 
post about the state of player development in the US for every sport that was mentioned. One of my more niche interests I guess.
The USA is the best in baseball by a wide margin. A best US lineup would be competitive with a best of the rest of the world lineup. Japan keeps getting better at producing players but they are still a long way behind the US. In baseball the US has the best facilities and training regimens, while also having the biggest player pool. Though Japan is extremely close in the former two.
In basketball the rest of the world has left the US behind. The US still has the most talent by a large margin, but that is because of facilities and player pool. They stick to extremely antiquated ideas when it comes to what makes a good basketball player. Though that should be changing eventually. Players like Jokic, Doncic, and Curry aren't going unnoticed.
In both basketball and womens soccer the US is held back by their reliance on the collegiate system. In the rest of the world all players go through academies where they train full time while contracted to a professional club as a youth player. The biggest difference is that growing up a US player will play 6 games a week and practice once. While a player in Europe will play one game and practice 6 times in a week. They also get into the higher quality facilities sooner because many players play for the same club from age 6 to their professional career. In the US travel team/collegiate system players are only ever played in their best position and players are selected for how good they are now. In an academy system players are put into a range of positions to grow their potential. And players are selected for how good they'll be at 18, instead of 12.
US Womens soccer is starting to build up their academy infrustructure but its much more difficult than in Europe. In Europe Barcelona has a mens team, a womens team, and a basketball team. Plus all associated infrastructure. FC Barcelona can build womens facilities with a flick of their wrist, whereas its much harder in the US. But, the NASL is growing, and academies are getting better. The US will never have its old dominance again, but it will start to pull ahead once every NASL team builds up their academy infrastructure. Short term Europe has the advantage, but long term there will only ever be a few womens teams in Europe that can think long term enough to build high quality academies. This is due to promotion and relegation, and the reduced profitability of the womens game.
Mens soccer in the US gets better every year. Because of the MLS ownership structure every team thinks long term. Ligue 1 in France puts 70% of its revenue towards player salaries while in MLS its only 26%. This is because MLS is incentivizing its teams to invest in their academies, training facilities, and stadiums. First with the lack of promotion and relegation letting teams think farther ahead. Next with roster rules forcibly shrinking the rosters of teams without homegrown players. Lastly with the salary cap, as players on homegrown contracts don't count against the salary cap. The US will probably never have an academy as good as la masia, ajax, Dortmund, Bayern, ect. But eventually, imo, the US will have 20 or 30 academies that are just below that level.
Oh, there are plenty of technically focused young mens soccer players in the US. The US will always be known for athleticism. Our huge player pool to academy space ratio will they always have great athletes available. But, the majority of promising US U21 talents are most known for their technical or tactical ability. As it should be.
Producing professional players is all about how much infrastructure you have around it. The US is developing that infrastructure for mens soccer more efficiently than any other country in the world, except maybe Japan again. Though Japan's big advantage is in their training methods and player analysis which is among the best in the world. While the US is among the best in the world in terms of facilities, it lags behind in quality coaches. But, getting more coaches into the system takes longer than construction.
Barbarism is how the US got to the top.
I think about this all the time, when you pillage resources from every nutrient-rich country in existence for capital and do it at gunpoint, no shit you’re going to be richer than everyone
When you have access to unlimited funds, and the power to take talented children away from their families and dorm them in battle schools, and train them full time with the best coaches in the world, sometimes it's easy to gain dominance in a sport.
Reddit thinks China is the Jedi order.
american athletes definitely don't go to sports school where they train full time because they showed talent as a child
I’ve known kids who had their parents move them to schools across the country just because their particular sports programs were so good
access to unlimited funds
damn that place seems pretty dope
Citizen your baby is being requisitioned to fill the swimming quota
There's probably an interesting answer in there if you dig up a timeline of Chinese city construction and cross reference with how developed a city has to be before they start putting in Olympic swimming pools.
this redditor doesn't know what "jingoistic" means but is correct anyway
crackers are unironically gonna kill themselves if the world achieves resource/nutrition parity with them
Hopefully this starts some self reflection. At least they identified themself as jingoistic
Like many Americans, I get super jingoistic ~~every four years in July/August~~
Carl Lewis was like this when the Jamaicans started dominating the sprints. Any non-American was obviously doping while every American was being honest and fair to the sport.
Carl Lewis was 100% doping himself, lmao.
He even admitted as much and responded with, “everybody was doing it. Stop targeting me 😢”
'like many americans, i get super jingoistic every four years in july august'
american exceptionalism is a hell of a drug
he should be given a wedgie for saying that
YouTube feed added this channel who kept making claims Chinese athletes were cheating when another athlete was penalized for fouling with them.
Dude is already self aware so not sure what the point of this post is. Maybe he’s asking if China has been investing in swimming or something obvious. He wasn’t accusing China of anything my man
i mean, they were incredulous enough to make a reddit post about it, and considering the context of reddit-China relations i figured it was noteworthy
also don't call me 'my man'. we have pronouns here for a reason, I'd appreciate not assuming I'd be ok with masc-gendered terms thanks.
always the lemm.ees
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