Reply #32: Also, this caveat probably applies to other nations as well

[daleo]

I am not an expert on Olympic sports, but I am sure it is not only the Americans who sometimes have to leave world class athletes behind, while countries with less accomplished athletes take their places. I am sure the Russians could make the same complaint in some sports, for example.

There have been various analyses done that show medal counts are quite predictable:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/tuck/news/newsroom/pr20040726_olympics.html

""When you get right down to it, the national success at the Olympics is as much about economics as about individual athletic prowess," says Bernard. The study explains that over the last 40 years, national Olympic medal totals have been driven by four distinct factors: population, per capita income, past performance, and a host effect."

But people like to impute something about national character, spirit, competitiveness, etc. into these things, and use medal counts as evidence for ethnic (e.g. Nazi Germany) or ideological superiority (e.g. cold war medal race between Soviet Union and USA). It was ever thus.