Is the USA as bad at any other Olympic sport as it is at Greco?

[MDogg 181]

Serious question: is there any other Olympic sport competed at the individual level where the USA is consistently as bad as it is at Greco? Where we send our 10 best guys to compete individually at world championships and nobody back home is even surprised when we don’t bring home 1 of the 40 medals given out? 

By my count we’ve medaled once in the past 4 world/Olympic championships...so we’ve accounted for 1 of the 136 medals given out over that period.

Are we this bad at any other individual Olympic sport?

[KTG119 816]

maybe men's weightlifting? 

[NJDan 436]

I am sure there are many, Speedwalking for one.

[maligned 409]

No singles or doubles table tennis medals ever

[BTC 13]

1 minute ago, maligned said:

No singles or doubles table tennis medals ever

I know a wealthy man in Alabama that would beg to differ. 

[NJDan 436]

BTW, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN RULON GARDNER!!!!

 

 

[gimpeltf 963]

12 minutes ago, NJDan said:

BTW, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN RULON GARDNER!!!!

 

 

That wasn't part of the last 4 Olympics

[AHamilton 127]

 I find it difficult to comprehend that we won a Greco World team title in my lifetime.

 

That really happened right?  Or was I dreaming it?

[LJB 737]

17 minutes ago, NJDan said:

BTW, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN RULON GARDNER!!!!

 

 

rulon is not the last US greco world champ...

[Chet 31]

1 hour ago, NJDan said:

BTW, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN RULON GARDNER!!!!

 

 

Every time we start talking greco roman wrestling a folkstyle fan has got to pull a Rulon Gardner out they a$$. Rulon Gardner was good, but compared to Dremiel Byers, Rulon Gardner ain't sh!t.

[Fishbane 102]

The US has 15 Olympic medals all-time in Greco-Roman wrestling including 3 golds. They have fewer medals than that and overall golds in field hockey, lacrosse, polo, modern pentathlon, Jeu de paume, triathlon, baseball, tug of war, roque, rugby union, taekwondo, judo, water polo, softball, golf, and volleyball. 

[Fishbane 102]

2 hours ago, KTG119 said:

maybe men's weightlifting? 

The US is 3rd all-time in weightlifting Olympic medal standings (includes both men and womens).  They are 14th in greco roman wrestling. 

[KTG119 816]

6 minutes ago, Fishbane said:

The US is 3rd all-time in weightlifting Olympic medal standings (includes both men and womens).  They are 14th in greco roman wrestling. 

I honestly don't know what the USA has done in past few world championships in weightlifting, used to casually follow it, but pretty sure the vast majority of the medals were way back, like pre 70s anyway? And any uptick in recent medals is most likely due to women being added.   

[Fishbane 102]

3 hours ago, MDogg said:

Serious question: is there any other Olympic sport competed at the individual level where the USA is consistently as bad as it is at Greco?

Greco Roman wrestling 3 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze, 15 overall medals is 14th all time in the medal standings

Judo 2 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze, 14 overall medals which is 15th all time in the medal standings

Canoeing 5 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze, 16 overall medals which is 15th all time in the medal standings

Fencing 2 gold, 9 silver, 14 bronze, 25 overall medals which is 14th all time in the medal standings

several winter sports including luge, cross-country skiing.

Edited September 16 by Fishbane

[Fishbane 102]

10 minutes ago, KTG119 said:

I honestly don't know what the USA has done in past few world championships in weightlifting, used to casually follow it, but pretty sure the vast majority of the medals were way back, like pre 70s anyway? And any uptick in recent medals is most likely due to women being added.   

That is correct.  Weightlifting is also different in that nations can have more than one entry in an event.  If that were the case with greco-roman we'd have even fewer medals than we do.  

[ConnorsDad 364]

 

 

 

4 hours ago, MDogg said:

Serious question: is there any other Olympic sport competed at the individual level where the USA is consistently as bad as it is at Greco? Where we send our 10 best guys to compete individually at world championships and nobody back home is even surprised when we don’t bring home 1 of the 40 medals given out? 

By my count we’ve medaled once in the past 4 world/Olympic championships...so we’ve accounted for 1 of the 136 medals given out over that period.

Are we this bad at any other individual Olympic sport?

Absolutely. Some sports we used to be good at while some we may have always been bad. The first group has weightlifting. We were once good in it but once the Soviet Bloc got started and steroids changed the playing field we were left behind. One side note is that probably our most famous weightlifter Toshiyuki "Harold" Sakata is probably known by most people. He was Oddjob in Goldfinger. The second group are the sports in which we have never been worth a ****. The list is very long - Table Tennis (Forest Gump not withstanding), badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and handball are all sports in which we have never medaled. Others where we are much worse include field hockey, race walking, women's hammer throw and on and on and on. That's not even including all the Olympic sports that are no longer Olympic sports. Interesting topic though Mdogg.

 

[tbert 559]

We did reach the quarterfinals in soccer world cup one year.

[MDogg 181]

3 hours ago, Fishbane said:

Greco Roman wrestling 3 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze, 15 overall medals is 14th all time in the medal standings

Judo 2 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze, 14 overall medals which is 15th all time in the medal standings

Canoeing 5 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze, 16 overall medals which is 15th all time in the medal standings

Fencing 2 gold, 9 silver, 14 bronze, 25 overall medals which is 14th all time in the medal standings

several winter sports including luge, cross-country skiing.

Thanks...good stuff. Data is accurate but worth pointing out that 2 of the 3 golds the US has ever won in Greco (along with another silver and bronze) were at the boycotted 1984 games. 

To put it in perspective, in 1976 (the last games prior to 1984 without a sizable boycott) 70% of the finalists were from countries that boycotted the 1984 games. 

Edited September 16 by MDogg

[lu1979 220]

5 hours ago, Chet said:

Every time we start talking greco roman wrestling a folkstyle fan has got to pull a Rulon Gardner out they a$$. Rulon Gardner was good, but compared to Dremiel Byers, Rulon Gardner ain't sh!t.

As I recall Rulon owned Byers while they were competing against each other.  Once Rulon retired Byers had great success on the world level.  Hwe was already pretty old by then.

[ConnorsDad 364]

2 hours ago, MDogg said:

Thanks...good stuff. Data is accurate but worth pointing out that 2 of the 3 golds the US has ever won in Greco (along with another silver and bronze) were at the boycotted 1984 games. 

To put it in perspective, in 1976 (the last games prior to 1984 without a sizable boycott) 70% of the finalists were from countries that boycotted the 1984 games. 

Here's some more for you for people who are thinking Greco will never get to the level of freestyle. While I'm sure it won't ever get to that level I know we can have a successful program. In 1984 at the Olympics with the Soviet boycott there were only four medalists from the previous year's World freestyle championships who were in Los Angeles. In fact, only seven of the 30 medalists in 83 came from non Soviet Bloc countries. Also, in 2009 & 2010 our freestyle results at the World Championships were god-awful. In fact, in 2010 might be the worst result regardless of style ever. So while we definitely have some work to do in Greco it is not like Freestyle has always been as good as it is now. I realize it's going to be harder because folk and free are so similar but I think we can have results on the senior level each year akin to what our junior team did this year and that wouldn't be all bad.

[jchapman 728]

7 hours ago, ConnorsDad said:

 

 

 

Absolutely. Some sports we used to be good at while some we may have always been bad. The first group has weightlifting. We were once good in it but once the Soviet Bloc got started and steroids changed the playing field we were left behind. One side note is that probably our most famous weightlifter Toshiyuki "Harold" Sakata is probably known by most people. He was Oddjob in Goldfinger. The second group are the sports in which we have never been worth a ****. The list is very long - Table Tennis (Forest Gump not withstanding), badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and handball are all sports in which we have never medaled. Others where we are much worse include field hockey, race walking, women's hammer throw and on and on and on. That's not even including all the Olympic sports that are no longer Olympic sports. Interesting topic though Mdogg.

 

Have you ever heard of Tommy Kono? 

[Perry 956]

At least we are ahead of the modern pentathalon... 

[JasonBryant 1,481]

I know a wealthy man in Alabama that would beg to differ. 

Boycotted in 80.

[Fishbane 102]

16 hours ago, MDogg said:

Thanks...good stuff. Data is accurate but worth pointing out that 2 of the 3 golds the US has ever won in Greco (along with another silver and bronze) were at the boycotted 1984 games. 

To put it in perspective, in 1976 (the last games prior to 1984 without a sizable boycott) 70% of the finalists were from countries that boycotted the 1984 games. 

Are you saying you'd take a greco gold medal from the 1984 Friendship Games over the 1984 Olympic games?

For what it's worth the US didn't win a gold in any of the three sports I has listed (Canoeing, Judo, Fencing) at the 1984 Olympics.  They did win some silver and bronze. Also keep in mind that most of these sports have a different format.  Judo has double bronze, but they used to have a more complicated repechage.  Anyone that lost to a semifinalist used to participate in the repechage.  When Rhonda Rousey won bronze at the Bejing Olympics she had lost to judoka that lost in the semifinals and then came back to get bronze.  The women she had lost to ended up winning the other bronze medal.  Canoeing doesn't have double bronze medals, but there are 16 golds available per games now.  Fencing doesn't have double bronze and has 10 medals/games, but some of those are team based competitions.  A good amount of the US medals are in the team competition.

[MDogg 181]

7 hours ago, Fishbane said:

Are you saying you'd take a greco gold medal from the 1984 Friendship Games over the 1984 Olympic games?

While a much tougher Greco field, “Friendship Games” sounds like some kind of new age millennial sporting event. I’ll take the Olympic champ label.

Edited September 17 by MDogg