With only four days of athletic competition left, it’s looking unlikely that the U.S. will overtake China’s 44-26 lead in gold medals, although the U.S. currently leads in medal count 79-77. But what does it mean if China wins more golds than the U.S.?
If you listen to the Chinese media, it means a lot. Today’s Global Times newspaper ran a story about what the world would think if China won the most gold medals. The piece quoted a Beijing professor as saying, “The number of medals to a certain extent has a relationship with the country’s economic and political strength. But it has no direct relationship.”
Sounds like there’s more than medals at stake here.