Two events contribute most medals in Olympics - Swimming and Gymnastics. Those who dominate them usually see the highest number of golds, silvers and bronzes glittering on their neck.
The erstwhile Soviet Union dominated Gymnastics for a long time. Americans are to swimming as fish is to water, earning the bulk of Olympics medals in that event. So also the erstwhile East Germany who dominated the female swimming events - especially in 1976, Montreal, pushing USA to 3rd place in the total medal tally by virtue of the impressive performance of their female swimmers.
So why Swimming is so important to the medal tally ? It has 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events in different permutations and combinations of Freestyle, Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke for individual, relay, medley relay, for both males and females. And that's a lot of medals.
Gymnastics has floor exercises, parallel bars, horizontal bars, pommel horse for both individuals and teams, male and female. While team sports like Soccer, Hockey, Volleyball, Basketball etc can fetch only one gold, Swimming and Gymnastics bring plenty.
America, followed by Australia have done constantly well in aquatics. Europeans, especially Germans had their share of flash in the pool too. From Mark Spitz in 1972, Matt Biondi in 1988 to Michael Phelps, America has dominated male swimming for eons. The East German girls Cornelia Ender and Barbara Krause dominated the pool in 1976 and 1980 games respectively for East Germany.
In Gymnastics, USSR and Romania dominated for a long time, with the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 for the first time in history in 1976 at Montreal. Alexander Dityatin from Soviet Union soon followed in 1980 by being the first male gymnast to score a perfect 10.
After the success of Nadia Comaneci, USA managed to orchestrate the defection of her coach, the legendary Bela Karolyi, by luring him with a hefty fee. The move worked well, resulting in Mary Lou Retton winning gold medal in 1984 LA Olympics. The event was the harbinger of further success of America in Gymnastics. It never looked back since.
1984 also marked the entrance of the Chinese into the Olympics. Slowly, they improvised and became a force to reckon with in Gymnastics. Soon the medals in this event was pretty much shared between US, Russia, China, Japan and Korea.
This year is unique - as India will have its first ever entrant in this event in the form of Dipa Karmakar. It's a long way to go for India in this sports, but qualification of this young girl is a step in the right direction. Good luck India and way to go Dipa.
The erstwhile Soviet Union dominated Gymnastics for a long time. Americans are to swimming as fish is to water, earning the bulk of Olympics medals in that event. So also the erstwhile East Germany who dominated the female swimming events - especially in 1976, Montreal, pushing USA to 3rd place in the total medal tally by virtue of the impressive performance of their female swimmers.
So why Swimming is so important to the medal tally ? It has 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events in different permutations and combinations of Freestyle, Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke for individual, relay, medley relay, for both males and females. And that's a lot of medals.
Gymnastics has floor exercises, parallel bars, horizontal bars, pommel horse for both individuals and teams, male and female. While team sports like Soccer, Hockey, Volleyball, Basketball etc can fetch only one gold, Swimming and Gymnastics bring plenty.
America, followed by Australia have done constantly well in aquatics. Europeans, especially Germans had their share of flash in the pool too. From Mark Spitz in 1972, Matt Biondi in 1988 to Michael Phelps, America has dominated male swimming for eons. The East German girls Cornelia Ender and Barbara Krause dominated the pool in 1976 and 1980 games respectively for East Germany.
In Gymnastics, USSR and Romania dominated for a long time, with the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 for the first time in history in 1976 at Montreal. Alexander Dityatin from Soviet Union soon followed in 1980 by being the first male gymnast to score a perfect 10.
After the success of Nadia Comaneci, USA managed to orchestrate the defection of her coach, the legendary Bela Karolyi, by luring him with a hefty fee. The move worked well, resulting in Mary Lou Retton winning gold medal in 1984 LA Olympics. The event was the harbinger of further success of America in Gymnastics. It never looked back since.
1984 also marked the entrance of the Chinese into the Olympics. Slowly, they improvised and became a force to reckon with in Gymnastics. Soon the medals in this event was pretty much shared between US, Russia, China, Japan and Korea.
This year is unique - as India will have its first ever entrant in this event in the form of Dipa Karmakar. It's a long way to go for India in this sports, but qualification of this young girl is a step in the right direction. Good luck India and way to go Dipa.
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