tokyo 2020 olympics

Japan has its best Olympic medal haul: 27 gold, 58 overall

52 Comments
By STEPHEN WADE

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Japan had its best Olympic production in every category: the most gold medals (27), the most overall (58), and a third-place finish in gold medals

Let's see whether Japan can still maintain this during 2024. In 2016 Japan had 41 medals with 12 gold medals and ranked 6th.

So how much does it cost? $15.4 billion. That cost is not included current Covid cases.

https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-games-total-cost-8ec49ea2ea9d7316f37ffd20770a2742

4 ( +11 / -7 )

The LDP are loving this. "Now those brainless peasants are absolutely certain to vote us back in!"

11 ( +19 / -8 )

I was wondering what happened to Korea in the medal table on this site then realised they didn't even make top 15 this year. Guess cooking there own food didn't help :)

Great job Japan, Amazing Olympics!

-9 ( +10 / -19 )

If Japan really wanted to increase the chance for future Olympic athletes and even medalists, then rather that sinking billions into the corporate Games, all of the money could have gone to building public sporting facilities and helping amateur sporting organizations. For example, now many sports fields are on river banks that get washed away with the increased flooding from the climate emergency and practice is disrupted. Wouldn't it have been better to make safe and sustainable sports grounds? The opportunity cost from these wasteful Olympics is huge.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Japan won table tennis. A sport for Japan I guess...

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

What is they gonna do with the Olympics stadium, after it was barely use

0 ( +4 / -4 )

What is they gonna do with the Olympics stadium, after it was barely use

I'm guessing the government has plans for it, in decreasing order of likelihood:

1) Sell it to some incredibly rich company or individual who will probably do nothing with it

2) Turn it into a super-mega-kawaii theme park to distract people from the consumption tax going up to 15%

3) Let it sit there as a symbol of extravagance, waste and bureaucratic incompetence

4) Turn it into a mass vaccination center.

(That last one was a joke).

6 ( +9 / -3 )

I'm surprised Japan didn't win more, considering all the home-advantage provided by the pandemic, in addition to the usual home-advantage of more participants and home supporters (in the form of volunteers - very clever, that).

Unlike most other athletes, the Japanese athletes didn't have to put up with isolation, training in small rooms, continuous testing and waiting, all the stress that comes with this. They had access to the best training facilities, could probably sleep in their own beds and go out whenever and wherever.

Anyway, as that advantage has gone, along with karate, softball and baseball, it's all downhill from now. The question now is, was it all worth it to have it right in the middle of the pandemic. Financially, this has been a total disaster. Tax-payers will still be paying for this, right until and beyond the Sapporo Olympics.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

It will be remembered as the Covid Olympics - the one that was held in the middle of a pandemic, with no fans. Those who have to pay for it now, and in the future, were banned from attending.

The legacy will be the crippling cost. Thats it.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

What i find ridiculous is that China and Honk Kong send each their own teams. Is kinda unfair for other nations.

Also government should not boast about the medal rewards. 5million yen for a gold medal is nothing. Taiwan pay 750k for a gold medal. Athletes need to train 4 years of their lives. Living cost, paying for a coach, buying equipment, hiring massage therapist, eating healthy etc. 45k is gone easily in a few months for athletes after paying for living expenses.

Most other nations support their athletes heavily and properly fund them for the olympic. But here in Japan most are on their own after the olympic games. Trying to find ways to make ends meet and save enough for the next olympic.

They either have to find big sponsor or win prize money at different tournaments to keep up. And finding sponsor is hard because you have to be likable and have a huge following of fanbase.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Most other nations support their athletes heavily and properly fund them for the olympic. But here in Japan most are on their own after the olympic games. Trying to find ways to make ends meet and save enough for the next olympic.

Why should the government pay people to play games?

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

The most recent polls shows more than 62% of Japanese people think positive about the Olympic Games. It is easy to understand such feeling: Covid-19 was insignificant and Japanese athletes did extremely well.

Personally It was surprisingly good games to me. I really enjoyed it, much more than any other Olympics in the past. Reasons? More competitions and less circus. More direct posts by athletes and less writings by journalists. I think the Olympics should concentrate on pure competitions and competitors rathe than any other extra events or politics. Sporting events are after all for athletes and people who appreciate their efforts and achievements.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

HiroToday  08:54 am JST

Also government should not boast about the medal rewards. 5million yen for a gold medal is nothing. Taiwan pay 750k for a gold medal. Athletes need to train 4 years of their lives. Living cost, paying for a coach, buying equipment, hiring massage therapist, eating healthy etc. 45k is gone easily in a few months for athletes after paying for living expenses.

Most other nations support their athletes heavily and properly fund them for the olympic. But here in Japan most are on their own after the olympic games. Trying to find ways to make ends meet and save enough for the next olympic.

If you have money, you can build athletes for the prestige of the country. And fill the pockets of ICO, NBC...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

What is they gonna do with the Olympics stadium, after it was barely use

Ask Germany. They still didn’t see a return on many of the sites they built for the 1972 Olympics. Just a broken down graveyard of old venues that no one will ever visit or use.

Just take a look at this…

https://travel.alot.com/themes/former-olympic-venues-where-are-they-now--9040

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

They did everything to put Japan in a heavy advantage for their host games.

They added Olympics disciplines where Japan could score gold medals,they got the ground and most important weather advantage in a hot and humid environment where they are accustomed since childhood and even some little advantages by the judges in certain disciplines.

So all in all it was a magnified Japanese sports day with the addition of foreigners.

This is all for pleasing the old oyaji ultra right wingers nationalistic J-gov and bureaucrats so they can prove their superiority against them “the gaijin”

And finally it’s over.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

China get more gold medals too, US won but get less gold medals

What are you talking about? Not in the end. We kicked butt!

1)US: gold 39/ silver 41/ bronze 33=113

2)China: gold 38/ silver 32/ bronze 18=88

5)Japan: gold 27/ silver 14/ bronze 17=58

These are the final medal count for any clarification.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Yrral:

What is they gonna do with the Olympics stadium, after it was barely use

It's going to be Japan's main stadium for soccer and rugby. It may become a home ground for FC Tokyo (a soccer team in Tokyo). It's also going to be used for other events such as concerts.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

O'Brien:

The LDP are loving this. "Now those brainless peasants are absolutely certain to vote us back in!"

Not so fast!

The most recent polls show that 62% think positive about the Olympic Games, but the support for the LDP government went further down to 29%, the worst for Suga administration!

So Japanese people think the Olympic Games went well despite the inept government.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Home countries always get a medal bump, usually by investing more time and money than they would ordinarily. With no fans, some of that home-field advantage was lost. Still, Japan made up for the lack of fans by winning medals in the five sports added to this year's Olympic program: baseball-softball, sports climbing, karate, surfing and skateboarding.

How about the daily testing and prison like restrictions on foreign athletes while the host didn't have to face that in itself is a far bigger advantage to the host athletes. The true test will be in Paris in 3 yrs. Strange the author doesn't see it as an advantage to the home athletes.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

If my memory serves me right away hey we’re aiming for 30 in total. So it quiet an achievement! Congratulations and congratulations to the States for finally beating the CCP in Gold medals! Pooh san must be sad today!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

It's going to be Japan's main stadium for soccer and rugby. It may become a home ground for FC Tokyo (a soccer team in Tokyo). It's also going to be used for other events such as concerts.

That doesn't change the fact that it will be under used and a massive deficit with running cost far outweighing income. Just like with the covid-19 numbers, Sakura no kai, kakei gakuen and a host of other scandals, the true cost of this olympics will never be known due to lack of accountability. Time to have a truely independent audit agency free of bureaucratic and government influence, I know it will never happen, nothing wrong dreaming.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

China has a population of one billion people or ten times larger than Japan’s. And the US, with 300 million people, three times larger. So in terms of the number of gold medals per 1 million people, Japan had much better performance than the two superpowers. Britain, with a population half that of Japan, had even better performance.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Japan had much better performance than the two superpowers. Britain, with a population half that of Japan, had even better performance.

How convenient, Why don't you compare it with Australia or even NZ.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

That doesn't change the fact that it will be under used and a massive deficit with running cost far outweighing income. Just like with the covid-19 numbers, Sakura no kai, kakei gakuen and a host of other scandals, the true cost of this olympics will never be known due to lack of accountability. Time to have a truely independent audit agency free of bureaucratic and government influence, I know it will never happen, nothing wrong dreaming.

Finally taxpayers would end up paying for such deficit whatever that incompetent government, Olympic organizers, JOC,,,,, made up for the incredible event.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Japan had much better performance than the two superpowers. Britain, with a population half that of Japan, had even better performance.

Now you’re just digging. Better give that up. No person living is going to go around thinking that and saying that makes for an extreme weak argument. You’re talking more or less in hypotheticals and you need to take into consideration each event had the required athletes representing their sort disciplined event in all the major events choose your major sport, Japan was represented and in certain events like table tennis and badminton and judo they did better respectively, in other events like track and field, basketball, swimming, less. The bottom line is, Japan did well, but still it didn’t come close to what the athletes of The US and China brought to the table, now that doesn’t mean that Japan can improve, it can and it has, but Japan is not there yet and in the end, results are the only thing that matter and the US and China delivered on that. That’s not politics, that’s a performance reality.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

China has a population of one billion people or ten times larger than Japan’s. And the US, with 300 million people, three times larger. So in terms of the number of gold medals per 1 million people, Japan had much better performance than the two superpowers. Britain, with a population half that of Japan, had even better performance.

It seems populations (1 billion, 0.3 billion, 0.1 billion, etc) don't matter. It depends on how trainers/coaches raise up best athletes daily. For example the number of car accidents or some kinds of accidents may be relevant to population.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The United States won 39 gold medals - one more than China - and was way ahead in the overall medal standings with 113 compared to 88 for China. The Russian Olympic Committee had 71 overall medals followed by Britain with 65. Japan was fifth.

The host country always does well as compared to all its own previous olympics.

Japan will have a tough go in France in three years time. Guarantee it.

Just look at what happened in Nagano '98. They got 10 overall medals. Then in Salt Lake City '02 they got 2. And in Turin '06 they got 1.

And now to address the above quote from this article. It must steam some rabid America haters that the US came out on top on the gold medal table and the overall medal table as well since the haters were talking smack for two weeks about it. Read it and weep.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! BAM! BOO YAH!!!

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

sakurasukiToday  07:12 am JST

Japan had its best Olympic production in every category: the most gold medals (27), the most overall (58), and a third-place finish in gold medals

Let's see whether Japan can still maintain this during 2024. In 2016 Japan had 41 medals with 12 gold medals and ranked 6th.

Japan ranked 3rd

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

It seems populations (1 billion, 0.3 billion, 0.1 billion, etc) don't matter.

I think it does to a point. Most of us would be surprised if San Marino or Liechtenstein were leading the medals table. To take the example of Olympic football, Olympic champions Brazil probably have more people playing football regularly than the entire populations of these countries combined. A larger pool can be a factor.

I think another factor is focus. Argentina ( 45 million population ) is a footballing superpower but finished these Olympics with just 3 medals. They don’t seem to be too arsed with producing athletes for the Olympics.

If we talk about the Winter Olympics, the vast majority of the planet has little to no interest in it.

My honest opinion is that my home country, England, should be more focused on producing better footballers and pushing those with athletic ability towards football. GBR in the Olympics finished above countries with a far more decorated football history - Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France.

Give me footballers, not skateboarders, synchronized swimmers, rhythmic gymnasts etc.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Give me footballers, not skateboarders, synchronized swimmers, rhythmic gymnasts etc.

With its vast wealth English football should be able to take care of itself without needing lottery money funding. I'm not sure it's as simple as turning one tap off, another on and then expecting us to be as good at football as the nations that you mentioned. Well, at least not anytime soon.

Kids should be given a broad range of sports that they can participate in. Not all of them want to play football.

The UK won medals in 25 events, more than any other nation.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Well done Japan, and all other competitors.

Speaking to a few colleagues on Friday, they were saying how they really don't like to see Japan being successful in any sport/anything.

I asked why, and they said the gloating and comparing to other nations is awful. And then the inevitable celebration of anything Japan, whether people are a fan or not...

I was a little shocked to hear such vitriol, but they said Japanese are good losers, but the worst winners.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Congratulations to Japan and other nation's athletes.

We enjoy your performance and you have lifted up the world!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

And Japan should increase funding for the archery, judo, table tennis and wrestling division. Gold standards for Japan.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Still Japan did very well for a nation of 126.3 million people. Japanese people have a good reason to be chuffed. It is good news in a year of awful news.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Pretty good haul considering a lot of the regular stars like Uchimura, Seto, Momota, track relay team, etc. flopped miserably.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Hiro:

What i find ridiculous is that China and Honk Kong send each their own teams. Is kinda unfair for other nations.

Get over it. HK won 1G-2S-3B medals - a record for HK but hardly a dent in the medal tables. If HK participates as part of Team China, then China gets as many golds as USA. Oh no, that'll be unfair!!!!!!

If you want to complain, I suggest you go up to the Brits, and tell them to their faces not to send separate teams for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to the World Cup. Or tell Puerto Rico not to field their own team and enter US trials for Olympic qualifications.

And will people stop talking about population. India has one gold medal (well done to India, by the way), but somehow I don't think that country is small, by any means.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hiro:

What i find ridiculous is that China and Honk Kong send each their own teams. Is kinda unfair for other nations.

Puerto Rico and Guam also send independent teams instead of being included into USA team.

And FYI there is British Virgin Islands..or British Bermuda, French Polynesia..

Looks pretty fair.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Taking population size into account, Japan and Taiwan are so far ahead of CCP China, it is almost ridiculous. Demonstrates how much better a free society is as compared to the CCP dictatorship.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

To Blue

“58 Japanese nationals poised to be happy. Not so sure about the other 125 Mio though...”

at least 59, including me!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan’s success was double plus good, bravo to all. Dedication and hard work pays off. Even through these hard times the worlds cooperation made this all possible. The games have inspired the world, what a time to be alive.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

what a time to be alive

@Steve

Do you really believe that, mate?

Congratulations. I'm happy for Japan and their athletes. I just wish some of the sourpusses here could zip it. Let's face it, you whinges and whiners were the real losers in these games. Japanese population grew to support the games. World wide viewing was extremely high. Japan performed really well. There was no super spreader event caused by the olympics. They were safe and successful games with terrific opening and closing. ceremonies

@bradley

If you were so happy about the games, you wouldn't feel the need to attack people who didn't, no?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Commodore

US did very well and so did Team GB

Bravo to all competitors of all nations

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Just love that we cruised by China in the end.

Medals count doesn't matter? Ok--we got the most GOLD.

It sure does put a smile on your face for sure.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Total medals should matter too - since it shows commitment to supporting as many athletes to as many sports in achieving their Olympic dreams of competing for the podium

One can't just be committing only to those who give ya the highest chance of getting a gold

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Total medals should matter too - since it shows commitment to supporting as many athletes to as many sports in achieving their Olympic dreams of competing for the podium

One can't just be committing only to those who give ya the highest chance of getting a gold

Yeh, but the USA should at least have some point system. 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze, etc. The fact that they count a bronze the same as a gold is completely bizarre.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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