Move aside Men: US and Chinese women performing better than men

09 August, 2012

The ongoing Olympics has an interesting statistic - women athletes have been doing better than their male counterparts in bringing laurels to their nations by winning Gold medals. China and US women have been the best in their efforts in the 2012 London Olympics.

'STRENGTH OF a Woman', a famous song by Shaggy instantly rings in one's ear when one gets to hear about the performances of the women athletes in the 2012 London Olympics. They have been performing out of their skin to better the male counter parts from their respective nations. For instance, the US Women athletes have won 23 Gold medals out of the 34 yellow medals they have won so far, reported website usatoday. This stat shows that the US women have won 68% of the their nations total 2012 Olympic medals tally. It is an incredible feat.

The story does not end here with the Chinese women also not far behind with the number of medals that they have picked up during the ongoing London Olympics. China has won the most number of Gold medals so far, 36 in the Games. They are involved in a close fight with the US for the all elusive top spots when the Games conclude on 27 July 2012. The Chinese ladies have won 19 Gold medals. It reflects that the Chinese girls have won 52% of their medals. They have been in fine colour since the start of the Games, where they won 5 Gold medals in the first two days of the competition, whereas their male team mates had only won one.

But the same cannot be said for all the nations participating during the 2012 London Olympics as the host nation, Great Britain has won 22 Gold medals putting them up in third place in the medals tally. They have been performing consistently with the huge crowd support behind their back egging them on. Seven women from Team GB were able to win Gold medals, which is a decent job.

These above stats reflect that women should not be taken too lightly and should be given credit where it is due. Look at the US women athletes medal haul, had they not been at their best, the US team would not be second in the medals tally. The performance of Women athletes from other nations have also been impressive this Olympics. India for instance won 4 medals in total, out of which two of them were from women, Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal. The same goes for a country like Jamaica, where they won a total of 6 medals out of which 3 are won by women. North Korea won 4 Gold medals, out of which two were won by women.

But, one has to consider the facilities that are available to these athletes from China, the US, and the UK. Though, it is different in some countries , especially Muslim countries, where girls hardly play any kind of competitive sport as compared to the women from the west. Iran has won 8 medals in the London Olympics, none by female athletes. If women from such places come out and represent their nation, they too with regular top class coaching would make it tough for their male counterpart and make the sporting field level.