Osaka 2007

[baron-pierreIV]

They also are required to convert to Islam.

Put those nations on the "Axis of Evil" list!! Why did they take Michael Jackson but not Mohammed Ali?

Strangely enough, on the US gymnastics teams competing at the Worlds in Stuttgart, there is a 2nd generation US gymnast with Russian roots on both the men's and women's teams. There is Nastia Liukin (whose father was a 4-medalist in Seoul) in the women's team; and Alexander Artemev (similar lineage) on the men's team. BTW, Helen Mirren is of Russian lineage too? Mirrenoff was her father's name.

On the Italian women's indoor V-ball nat'l team, there is a Cuban-born player (their 'darkest' player but one of their 2 or 3 stars) - Taismary Aguero.

And Japan is getting into the act, too. For the SkateAmerica event being in Reading, PA (as part of ISU's Grand Prix series), the "Japanese" pair entered in Ice Dancing are brother-and-sis Chris and Cathy Reed (whose birth place is listed as Kalamazoo, MI; train in the US) but have sold their souls to the Japanese devils to compete for the Rising Sun. (I guess it's a fair trade-off for Rena Inoue who pairs with John Baldwin and skates for the US in Pairs.) I guess it was the easiest flag to compete for.

But if the various countries' constitutions or polciies allow easy change of citizenship, then who are these sporting orgs to trump policies of sovereign nations? Just DON"T award medals then. Just have Ceremonies!!

[Guardian]

With the 2007 World Championships now concluded, here is the updated all-time medal table. Please note that I rank based on total medals while others may rank by gold medals.

1 USA 117-61-59--237

2 USSR/ Russia 56-76-66--198

3 FR Germany/Germany 25-27-34--86

4 Kenya 27-22-22--71

5 Jamaica 7-29-29--65

6 Great Britain 13-25-26--64

7 German DR 20-18-15--53

8 Ethiopia 16-13-12--41

9 Cuba 17-16-6--39

10 Italy 10-15-12--37

11 Belarus 9-14-12--35

12 Spain 6-15-12--33

13 France 9-10-12--31

14 Morocco 10-11-8--29

15 Ukraine 7-9-11--27

16 Czechoslovakia/Czech Rep. 13-7-6--26

17 PR China 8-7-8--23

18 Poland 7-5-9--21

Romania 5-7-9--21

20 Australia 7-6-7--20

21 Finland 7-7-5--19

22 Greece 4-5-9--18

Japan 3-5-10--18

24 Bulgaria 6-3-7--16

Canada 4-7-5--16

26 Sweden 7-3-5--15

Bahamas 5-6-4--15

Portugal 5-5-5--15

29 Norway 5-3-2--10

Mexico 3-1-6--10

31 Algeria 6-1-2--9

South Africa 4-4-1--9

Brazil 0-4-5--9

Hungary 0-4-5--9

35 Switzerland 4-0-3--7

Nigeria 0-3-4--7

37 Netherlands 1-4-1--6

38 Mozambique 3-1-1--5

Estonia 2-3-0--5

Lithuania 2-2-1--5

Namibia 1-4-0--5

Trinidad and Tobago 1-2-2--5

Kazakhstan 0-2-3--5

44 Bahrain 3-1-0--4

Ecuador 3-1-0--4

Denmark 3-0-1--4

Ireland 2-2-0--4

48 Dominican Republic 2-1-0--3

Qatar 2-1-0--3

New Zealand 2-0-1--3

Zambia 1-2-0--3

Uganda 1-1-1--3

St. Kitts and Nevis 1-0-2--3

Belgium 0-0-3--3

55 Tajikistan 2-0-0--2

Senegal 1-0-1--2

Somalia 1-0-1--2

Syria 1-0-1--2

Cameroon 0-2-0--2

Djibouti 0-2-0--2

Turkey 0-2-0--2

Austria 0-1-1--2

Burundi 0-1-1--2

Ghana 0-1-1--2

Israel 0-1-1--2

Slovenia 0-1-1--2

Sri Lanka 0-1-1--2

Surinam 0-1-1--2

Slovakia 0-0-2--2

70 Croatia 1-0-0--1

DPR Korea 1-0-0--1

Panama 1-0-0--1

Bermuda 0-1-0--1

Tanzania 0-1-0--1

American Samoa 0-0-1--1

Cyprus 0-0-1--1

Dominica 0-0-1--1

Haiti 0-0-1--1

India 0-0-1--1

Saudi Arabia 0-0-1--1

Tunisia 0-0-1--1

I do not know, if this is right, but it seems that Edmonton 2001 is the only such World Championships in which the home nation did not win a single medal. If I'm wrong about this, please do correct me.

[baron-pierreIV]

I do not know, if this is right, but it seems that Edmonton 2001 is the only such World Championships in which the home nation did not win a single medal. If I'm wrong about this, please do correct me.

well, that would be a 3rd time (a charm) for Canada, right, in its 3rd int'l meet on Canadian soil w/o winning a medal? And it seems Alberta is a 'jinx' place insofar as Canada's bad luck in Calgary (and Edmonton).

[Guardian]

well, that would be a 3rd time (a charm) for Canada, right, in its 3rd int'l meet on Canadian soil w/o winning a medal? And it seems Alberta is a 'jinx' place insofar as Canada's bad luck in Calgary (and Edmonton).

Let's get one thing straight here. First of all, in all contrast to Canada's performance at home with international sporting meets lately, Edmonton's 1978 Commonwealth Games total (both gold and overall medal) was the tops of them all. Hard to believe that occurred, did it? Do not know, if that had to do with Canada's performance than the international competition "was not there." It is so far the only time that has happened. With the 1983 Summer Universiade, also was held in Edmonton, I know that Canada did well then, but I need to check things out on that front. It was respectable, just like the other Games and other international events the country has hosted in the past up to now.

It is too bad that some of us point out the obvious negatives (Calgary 1988 and Montreal 1976, for example) as reasons that Canada should not host this event or that event in the future. Or else, didn't anyone see how Canada improved its performance in the Olympic winter events since Calgary 1988? Well, it is an up-and-down scenario with the summer athletes since Montreal 1976, but it can be improved upon and they have done well in the past, too. However, it is getting ridiculous that there are national-provincial squabbling over this and that in the country's sporting issues, while we seem to be the "lackey" of the international sports world at the same time. That Halifax 2014 bid fiasco did not help matters.

But, here is what I think is going on in the country. As some people pointed out to me in the past, maybe we are "not nationally passionate enough" to help our athletes and cities go for the big prizes in the sports world. However, some of us feel that this whole idea of the Olympic Games and other such events are "not worth the money spent" nowadays. In other words, this is a very small sample of what is acceptable or not for Canada to assert itself in the international sporting world.

[Westfale]

I do not know, if this is right, but it seems that Edmonton 2001 is the only such World Championships in which the home nation did not win a single medal. If I'm wrong about this, please do correct me.

Sweden has not won a single medal in Gothenburg 1995.

[Faster]

Put those nations on the "Axis of Evil" list!! Why did they take Michael Jackson but not Mohammed Ali?

Strangely enough, on the US gymnastics teams competing at the Worlds in Stuttgart, there is a 2nd generation US gymnast with Russian roots on both the men's and women's teams. There is Nastia Liukin (whose father was a 4-medalist in Seoul) in the women's team; and Alexander Artemev (similar lineage) on the men's team. BTW, Helen Mirren is of Russian lineage too? Mirrenoff was her father's name.

On the Italian women's indoor V-ball nat'l team, there is a Cuban-born player (their 'darkest' player but one of their 2 or 3 stars) - Taismary Aguero.

And Japan is getting into the act, too. For the SkateAmerica event being in Reading, PA (as part of ISU's Grand Prix series), the "Japanese" pair entered in Ice Dancing are brother-and-sis Chris and Cathy Reed (whose birth place is listed as Kalamazoo, MI; train in the US) but have sold their souls to the Japanese devils to compete for the Rising Sun. (I guess it's a fair trade-off for Rena Inoue who pairs with John Baldwin and skates for the US in Pairs.) I guess it was the easiest flag to compete for.

But if the various countries' constitutions or polciies allow easy change of citizenship, then who are these sporting orgs to trump policies of sovereign nations? Just DON"T award medals then. Just have Ceremonies!!

I think that what pisses of the IOC and the IFs is that countries with expedite citizenship and is why the IOC inforces the 2 year rule.