Olympic medals

Apparently, and to my surprise, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are over.  

After all the snarking about different ways to do the medal count, America won either way. pic.twitter.com/S1JilwNACt

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 8, 2021

Things I discovered in viewing this tweet, its thread of comments, and a few searches based on natural questions.

The 2020 Olympics had been postponed to 2021.  Literally had not even thought about that.

The U.S. has competed in 27 Olympic Games since they were revived in 1896, and has taken the most number of medals in 15 of them. 

There are raging factions of Olympic followers as how to best measure success, principal alternates are Total Medal Count; Total Gold Medal Count; Total Medal Count per Capita; and score when gold=3 points, silver = 2 points, and bronze = 1 point. 

China likes to report its results including Taiwan and Hong Kong.

At some point in the past there was some sport pundit spat in which Hungary was heralded as a superb Olympics nation. 

Not a huge sports fan and the American broadcasting inclination towards sob stories around particular athletes has driven me even further away.  I enjoy competitive achievement and appreciate overcoming odds but really revolt at the media inclination to tell every story as victim overcoming odds.

I suspect this time around, I watched zero live broadcasts and probably not more than ten minutes of clips.  Maybe it's me.  Maybe it is the media habit of storytelling.  Maybe I am aging out of interest in the Olympics.  Whatever the reason, I recall a much greater interest and wonder as a youngster and even into adulthood.  I sort of miss that old raw enthusiasm for natural talent and achievement.