I'll probably write more about the Olympics in due course, but for now I will just offer a brief observation on the medal tally and the relative positions of my home and my adopted countries.
Australia finished with 35 medals - 7 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze. The Australian media largely agree that this was a dismal failure and an embarrassment on the global stage. They are currently debating as to whether to allow the 2012 team back in the country.
This is because we are Australia, a nation of lean, muscular, determined, underdogs. We spend a lot of time playing sport when other countries are off inventing things or composing operas, so we had better make sure it is time well spent. We spend a lot of money on our athletes and we expect them to finish first so that we can yell "Gold... gold... gold for Australia". We will accept the occasional silver but only in appropriately heroic circumstances - say if your best mate was shot during the race and you had to go back and carry him across the finishing line. We secretly believe that other countries only know us as "that country that is quite good at sport considering their size" and if we were to stop overperforming at the Olympics they would forget us entirely.
Hong Kong most definitely does not define itself by sport. With the exception of the Rugby Sevens, international sporting events are pretty much unknown here. As everyone knows, Hong Kong's most nation-defining pastime is capitalism. Hongkongers do like to go for a hike on Sundays or perhaps do a bit of dragon-boat racing, but unless they make merchant banking an Olympic sport, medals are going to be few and far between.
In London, Hong Kong finished with 1 medal. It was bronze in colour. It was won by Sarah Lee Wai-Sze in the women's keiren (that's the one where they chase a motorbike for some reason). This placed Hong Kong 78th overall.
The Hong Kong media were absolutely delighted with this result, and with good reason. Despite having sent a team to every Olympics since 1952 except Moscow, this was Hong Kong's third Olympic medal of any colour. Hong Kong's medal haul could so nearly have been higher too - they narrowly were beaten to table-tennis bronze by those giants of the table-tennis world, Germany. (Although, when you think about it, we are all giants as far as table-tennis is concerned.)
Even so, the Hong Kong team managed to increase the total number of Olympic medals the country has won by 50%. That has to be considered a successful games - to do the same, the USA would have had to win every medal on offer and then somehow another 300 medals on top of that.
So well done to all the medal winners on their achievements. And if any of you Aussies who won silver or bronze want to feel a bit more appreciated, you might want to try moving to Hong Kong.
Australia finished with 35 medals - 7 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze. The Australian media largely agree that this was a dismal failure and an embarrassment on the global stage. They are currently debating as to whether to allow the 2012 team back in the country.
This is because we are Australia, a nation of lean, muscular, determined, underdogs. We spend a lot of time playing sport when other countries are off inventing things or composing operas, so we had better make sure it is time well spent. We spend a lot of money on our athletes and we expect them to finish first so that we can yell "Gold... gold... gold for Australia". We will accept the occasional silver but only in appropriately heroic circumstances - say if your best mate was shot during the race and you had to go back and carry him across the finishing line. We secretly believe that other countries only know us as "that country that is quite good at sport considering their size" and if we were to stop overperforming at the Olympics they would forget us entirely.
Hong Kong most definitely does not define itself by sport. With the exception of the Rugby Sevens, international sporting events are pretty much unknown here. As everyone knows, Hong Kong's most nation-defining pastime is capitalism. Hongkongers do like to go for a hike on Sundays or perhaps do a bit of dragon-boat racing, but unless they make merchant banking an Olympic sport, medals are going to be few and far between.
In London, Hong Kong finished with 1 medal. It was bronze in colour. It was won by Sarah Lee Wai-Sze in the women's keiren (that's the one where they chase a motorbike for some reason). This placed Hong Kong 78th overall.
The Hong Kong media were absolutely delighted with this result, and with good reason. Despite having sent a team to every Olympics since 1952 except Moscow, this was Hong Kong's third Olympic medal of any colour. Hong Kong's medal haul could so nearly have been higher too - they narrowly were beaten to table-tennis bronze by those giants of the table-tennis world, Germany. (Although, when you think about it, we are all giants as far as table-tennis is concerned.)
Even so, the Hong Kong team managed to increase the total number of Olympic medals the country has won by 50%. That has to be considered a successful games - to do the same, the USA would have had to win every medal on offer and then somehow another 300 medals on top of that.
So well done to all the medal winners on their achievements. And if any of you Aussies who won silver or bronze want to feel a bit more appreciated, you might want to try moving to Hong Kong.
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