Soni sets 200m breaststroke record; Phelps gets another gold; Irie, Suzuki earn silver

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!! Go for the Gold !!!!!!

Good stuff... just get ahead of China in medals quick.

"I can not describe my feelings, this is my first Olympics and to win two medals is beyond my expectations," said Suzuki, who earned bronze in the 100m breaststroke on Monday. "I am very surprised. I tried to improve myself and go higher and higher, Rebecca's time is the next target for me to beat now."

Yes very good and congratulations cuteypie. I'm glad to see that you are doing your best. It's important to do your best in each and every event at the Olympics.

"Michael Phelps delivered one more history-making Olympic performance Thursday, winning the 200m medley to become the first man to win the same individual swimming event at three straight Games."

Simply.

Amazing.

my2sense:

Good stuff... just get ahead of China in medals quick.

Don't worry, if China gets more gold, you can follow the American way of ranking countries (which everyone else and the IOC does NOT follow).

Wow, your countrywomen broke 2 records in the same event! And not a single accusation of doping - oh, that's right, she doesn't have a Chinese name!

you can follow the American way of ranking countries (which everyone else and the IOC does NOT follow).

Haha I just checked the New York Times and sure enough they have them ordered by total medals, as if they were worth the same!!

I will dude.

http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/

Japan's Ryosuke Irie also steamed past Lochte to take the silver in 1:53.78

Congrats must also go out to this fellow. Good to see Japanese adhering to the Olympic spirit and doing their best.

http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/

Yes, I know, they rank in order of gold.

The Americans are really dominating in swimming, not that that's unusual. Good to see a lot of young blood out there scooping in the medals (both Americans and Japanese), though I was glad Phelps could squeeze one more gold in there.

As for ranking by medal tally or 'value', the proper way is definitely the latter -- gold is worth more than silver or bronze -- though a lot of countries who look better by tally will count it using the former. Japan, for example, ranks 3rd in terms of total number of medals, but 12 in terms order of gold. Not that the need to, but if they wanted to look better the media here could easily just talk about how Japan is third.

As for ranking by medal tally or 'value', the proper way is definitely the latter -- gold is worth more than silver or bronze --

Especially this year. I hear gold is worth 400 pounds, silver 200 pounds and bronze......a whopping 3 pounds (about 400 yen!!!!!). I know the UK economy isn't doing so well, but 3 pounds!

Not that the need to, but if they wanted to look better the media here could easily just talk about how Japan is third.

If the table were ranked by bronze, Japan would be number one! Followed closely by USA. China is useless when it comes to getting bronzes. Absolutely useless.

I guess every country skews the medals table to fit its agenda.

Japan is third in total medals but most are bronze. That won't stop the media here declaring it though.

That won't stop the media here declaring it though.

They mostly show the table as it should be i.e. by number of gold medals won, then silver medals won, then bronze medals won. Everybody knows the score. Nothing wrong with illustrating total medals won as each is an achievement, but they should not show (and Japan doesn't) just this total medal count, as that would imply an equal significance for each of the medals. Why don't we just level out the medal podium while we are at it?

China is the world's sporting power. I also find it entertaining that Japan's other neighours South Korea, Russia and even North Korea are outperforming them.

Having said that I support most Japanese athletes above anyone else. I do not support unrealistic self back-patting, poor sportsmanship, nor obviously hypocritic criticism of other nations' strategy.

I'll add that the back-patting and hypocrisy is the work of time-filling daytime variety shows, and not that of the Japanese athletes themselves.

^ totally agree that the back patting is the media not the athletes! I've been impressed with Japan's swimmers and their reaction to medals. There's another way of measuring medals (which NZ ran an article on) - by medals per population. If you do that China is nowhere near the top. Top 3 were like NZ, Slovenia and some other obscure country haha

Gold = 3 points, Silver = 2 points, Bronze = 1 point.

It gives higher value to the champions, but it also gives value to those who come close.

But China only cares for gold. That has been their sports strategy for the last couple decades. Take their state-owned media for example:

http://www.china.org.cn/sports/2012londonolympics/2012-07/31/content_26072232.htm

To some extent, the media are partly responsible for the obsession with gold medals, Wu Zhilin said.

"You see so much media coverage of the gold medalists, from what food they like to revisiting the primary school they attended. The other athletes just fade into the background," he said.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--family-kept-grandparents--deaths-secret-from-chinese-diver-until-she-won-gold-medal.html

The Chinese government's attitude towards the performances of its athletes is now coming under greater scrutiny than ever before. Messages of congratulations from the government to athletes through the state news agency have been sent only to gold medalists, not those winning silver or bronze.

China's strategy is mainly to pour resources in sports where:

1.) they have a very good chance of winning gold

2.) sports where there are multiple golds available, like gymnastics (team, all-around, and 1 per each apparatus)

3.) female sports because many are relatively new so they're not so far behind in development, and many female sports are underdeveloped in many nations relative to men's, so they can exploit and dominate in that vacuum arena.

And so:

a.) Unless it's a sport where they actually have a good chance of winning, they won't care too much about it - they're not looking for silvers and bronzes. They don't value silver- or bronze-capable athletes - unless you're a gold-capable athlete, they won't pour resources towards you.

b.) Team sports are lower priority. Why invest so much resources on, say, an 18-member soccer team just for 1 gold? That's why China rarely is competitive in big teams sports. Plus, it's much harder to develop a whole team than just separate individuals. And as the 2004 US men's basketball team found out, team sports takes more than excellent individual pieces - it also takes developing teamwork and tactics.

(On that note, because of that greater difficulty, there are some proponents for giving worth more medals proportional to the team sport size. For example, a 5-starting-players team sport like basketball would be worth 5 medals, while an 11-starting-players team sport like soccer be awarded 11 medals. But limited to "true" team sports with minimum, say, 5 or more starting players. So doubles tennis or 4-member relays still count just 1 medal.)

c.) Chinese women's athletes are pretty good and tend to be better than their men's. The majority of their medals are earned by their women.