The Medal Count for EU countries is now 308

[Burma Jones]

That should give chest thumpers in the USA and China some pause..........

[nickgutierrez]

1. Is there a readily available EU census?

Just to see how that stacks up in terms of population.

[hughee99]

2. Some numbers...

I have the EU's medal count at 273

Medals
GBR - GB 47
GER - Germany 41
ITA - Italy 27
NED - Ned 16
FRA - France 38
ESP - Spain 16
ROU - Romania 8
POL - Poland 10
CZE - Czech 6
SVK - Slovakia 6
HUN - Hungary 9
DEN - Denmark 7
SLO - Slovenia 5
BUL - Bulgaria 5
FIN - Finland 4
LAT - Latvia 3
BEL - Belgium 2
EST - Estonia 2
POR - Portugal 2
SWE - Sweden 5
LTU - Lithuania 5
GRE - Greece 4
AUT - Austria 3
IRL - Ireland 2
273

The total EU population is 497,456,009 which includes all EU countries even those who have no medals (Cyprus and Malta)

EU - 1 medal for every 1.8 million people
US - 1 medal for every 2.8 million people
China - 1 medal for every 13.4 million people

The EU was lead in medals per capita by Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Denmark who all had better than 1 medal per 1 million people

Medal list
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml

Member States and population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_member_state

[Angleae]

3. However it took them

6580 athletes compared to 675 for China and 809 for the US

[trumad]

5. Slam dunk post

I'm one American thumping my chest.

Eat it EU!

[Burma Jones]

6. If they took their best 809, and left the rest at home

do you think they would have fell behind the US and China?

I'm glad for the US Athletes, medalists and non-medalists. Shoot, I live about 35 miles from Michael Phelps - but I take no particular pride that I'm from Maryland. After reading article after article about China's outdoing the US in Gold Medals (and, if you weigh medals as 3=Gold, 2=Silver and 1=Bronze, the Chinese beat us there too 223 to 220) and the ascendancy of China, I thought it wise to take a minute and look at it a different way.

[cboy4]

4. Tell me who's gunna finish with the most medals.

I thought so.

[Burma Jones]

7. Take just three EU Countries, combined population of approx 205 million

Let's say just Britain, Germany and France, just that part of the EU. They have 130 medals between them.

So, with a little more than 2/3 the US Population and maybe a sixth that of China's, these three member states of the EU, just these three mind you, with a much smaller population, out-medaled the US and China.

[hughee99]

8. They are also able to participate MORE athletes.

For example, just take a look at the cycling events where the EU cleaned up. The three countries you mentioned finished 1-2-3 in men's team sprint. A great accomplishment, but if the EU were competing as a single nation (like the US and China are) they would have finished 1st by a long shot, and then someone else would have finished second and third and instead of winning the 3 medals they did, they would have only won 1.

You're trying to compare apples and oranges here, a better comparison would be the medals per population on a nation by nation basis rather than trying to combine the EU and match it up against the US or China.

[trumad]

10. What these knuckleheads are doing is trying their best to diss the American athletes

and they're failing miserably with their examples.

[T_i_B]

11. Also, the UK has been throwing lottery money at sports of late

Something which has increased thanks in no small part to London hosting the next Olympics. Cycling (and possibly sailing) are the areas where we got a good return for our cash medal wise.

Anyway, I'm sure you lot enjoyed watching the double decker bus and Boris Johnson waving the flag about at the closing ceremony.

[BulletproofLandshark]

9. Each of those nations can field the same number of athletes we can.

Your comparison is meaningless and misleading.