The Dark Truth about the Olympics
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00:00The USA historically dominates the Olympics because of tradition.
00:04There is a fat load of medals available in swimming and track, and lucky for the USA,
00:08the pool and the track are likely to be Olympic staples for as long as the games exist.
00:13Political consistency
00:15Some of its biggest competitors, like URSS or Germany, have suffered too many political changes.
00:21Sports culture
00:22More people taking part in sports.
00:24More money invested in sports.
00:26The meaning of winning a major competition for the nation.
00:29Australia, Netherlands, and Cuba are also examples of this culture.
00:33There are only three summer Olympic events in which the USA has never medaled.
00:37Badminton
00:38Team handball
00:40And table tennis.
00:41Big population
00:42Having a big population means that they have a large pool of athletes to draw from.
00:47China is also an example.
00:49America is wealthy.
00:50Being wealthy means that they can afford the facilities and the time to train.
00:54The population has enough leisure time and money to take part in sports.
00:58The USA tends to invest more in sport because they value the prestige that sporting success
01:02brings.
01:03Money can hire world-class coaches.
01:05Smaller gender gap
01:07Countries with higher gender equality won more medals when the factor of GDP is removed.
01:12When there's more equality, performance rises to the surface as the prime indicator
01:16of who should advance to elite levels of athletics.
01:19Unfortunately in majority Muslim countries,
01:22women are less likely to participate in sports and become athletes.
01:25Consequently, these countries usually send fewer or no female athletes.
01:30And fewer athletes mean fewer chances to win medals.
01:33And also, if you have an outstanding athlete like Michael Phelps you already have at least
01:3822 gold medals.
01:39That's much more than what some big countries won during history.
01:42Brazil has 23 golds in its history as a comparison.
01:45There is an inconvenient truth.
01:47Success in the Olympics if measured by medal count is inherently skewed in favor of the West.
01:52It might not be a stretch to describe it as a form of new imperialism
01:56because it incentivizes the rest of the world to invest in Western sports.
02:00This pro-Western bias manifests in various forms.
02:04The West has more events to compete in compared to other nations.
02:07Table tennis was only introduced in 1988, despite being played since the turn of the century.
02:13Why the hell did it take so long?
02:14Is it a coincidence that it's dominated by Asians?
02:17Badminton was only introduced in 1992,
02:20despite debuting in 1972 as a demonstrator.
02:24Why the hell did it take so long?
02:26Is it a coincidence that it's dominated by Asians?
02:28Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world if measured by the population of the fan
02:33base.
02:34Why the hell isn't it in the Olympics?
02:36Is it a coincidence that it's dominated by Asians?
02:39Martial arts are immensely popular.
02:41But surprisingly, Wushu and Karate are not in the Olympics.
02:44Is it a coincidence that it's dominated by Asians?
02:47But good news!
02:48Karate is finally added to the Olympics in Tokyo 2020 but not Wushu.
02:53Instead, bowling is being added.
02:55What?
02:56Bowling?
02:56Could it be because of its potential to be dominated by the West?
03:00Why the hell is golf in the Olympics?
03:02For those that don't know what golf is, it's a game where the player uses a club to hit a
03:06ball into a hole.
03:08But between the starting point and the hole is a lot of obstacles and distance.
03:12This is a game that requires a large carefully kept field and expensive equipment.
03:16Most players of golf are very well-off and the infrastructure for golf is very resource
03:21and real estate intensive.
03:22Definitely not a sport that is readily available to most people in the world.
03:26Definitely has much higher potential in the West.
03:29The West can reuse the same athletes but other nations cannot.
03:33Table tennis was only introduced in 1988 and has since been dominated by Asian countries,
03:39namely China, and to prevent that from happening, they changed the rules year after year to
03:44reduce this domination.
03:45Meanwhile, the opposite has happened in swimming.
03:48There are dozens of swimming events, and the West dominates, namely the USA.
03:53Yet nothing has prevented this proliferation of events from happening.
03:56The equivalent in table tennis is have more events for the same,
04:00men, women singles short game, men, women doubles short game, mix doubles short game,
04:06singles long game, doubles long game, etc.
04:10Or how about triples, other ping pong variants?
04:13The West has more resources for sports.
04:16Most people in the world are at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
04:19and this is also reflected in the development priorities of their nation-states.
04:24Training for the Olympics is at the fourth level or fifth level.
04:27The West had centuries of head start in developing their nation-states,
04:31and they can afford to put resources in developing athletes to play in fancy competitions.
04:36Most of the world is still focused on survival and related to the wealth of nations.
04:40American athletes have the best equipment and cutting-edge technologies to help them
04:45shave off the milliseconds needed to get on top.
04:48Most countries simply do not have that kind of disposable income.
04:51Western nation-states get the best immigrants.
04:54Athletes who can't make it to the top in their home countries or their countries
04:57don't provide adequate resources.
04:59One of China's largest exports is Olympic-level athletes who couldn't get on Team China.
05:04One advantage that the USA has over all other Western countries,
05:08it's branded the best immigrant country.
05:10So many world-class athletes from all over the world become American and compete for Team USA.
05:15The Olympic Games are kind of rigged in favor of the US
05:18and the West, both in rules and circumstances.
05:21I think people need to focus less on medal counts and celebrate the individual athletes.
05:26More and more people realize the Olympics
05:28is biased to the West and don't care about medal counts anymore.