| | |Similarly, will atheist nations underachieve in general? | | |Similarly, will atheist nations underachieve in general? |
| − | |China, an officially atheist and communist country, led in gold medals in the first week but then dropped badly to a distant second place behind the United States, despite China having more than three times the population of the United States and despite having a national program designed to produce champion athletes. Increasingly atheistic Australia performed much worse than expectations. Australia has 35 medals, but only 7 gold medals. France has 34 medals, of which 11 are gold. In 2008, Australia won 46 medals and France won 41. Australia won 14 golds that year, a total that they are unlikely to surpass at this point. | + | |China, an officially atheist and communist country, led in gold medals in the first week but then dropped badly to a distant second place behind the United States, despite China having more than three times the population of the United States and despite having a national program designed to produce champion athletes. Increasingly atheistic Australia performed much worse than expectations. Australia has 35 medals, but only 7 gold medals. France has 34 medals, of which 11 are gold. In 2008, Australia won 46 medals and France won 41. Australia won 14 golds that year, a total that they are unlikely to surpass at this point. "Atheistic" Great Britain, on the other hand, had its best Olympic showing since the 1908 Olympic Games (where Team GB had over half of the athletes in competition), demonstrating that it is truly absurd to attempt to link one's personal political agenda with something like the Olympic Games. |