The Concept of Proportional Olympic Golds.

Inequality in Olympic Medals: Not all "Golds" should be considered equal.

I am writing this during the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are universal sports, skiing or Figure Skating, and "specialty sports", like bobsled. Far more countries enter athletes in the former than in the latter.

I propose that the medals, especially the bandied-around "Golds" should be weighted according to the number of entrants in the particular event. I leave it to the statisticians to figure out the details.

Clearly, the winner of the Olympic Figure Skating should somehow have a heavier Gold than that of a member of 4-men bobsled, for instance. The latter could still get a Gold medal, but maybe with a magnifying glass attached to it. It would also save money to the Olympic Committee.

Let me generalize now about all Olympics. It is not fair that some events are so popular that only two persons from a country can enter, as in swimming; and some so scarcely populated that as many as three or even four per country can enter, as in short track skating, where seemingly half of South Korea is in every event. Golds in these events should be negatively weighted.

What about team events? Somehow an individual event should count more than a team event. So a Gold in a 4-person relay should be appropriately weighed by at least a factor of maybe ¼. I am conflicted about other types of team sports, like soccer or water polo, in which team play is also important. I cannot in good conscience suggest a factor of 1/11 for the members of the winning soccer team, but a full Gold is equally unreasonably.

My contempt is for other types of "team events", like team gymnastics, in which six members simply perform. No team work, no passing the baton, just do what they have done in the individual events. In women’s, China, US, and Romania are guaranteed to get a medal just by showing up. Full Gold? No way! They should be awarded 1/6th of a Gold, maybe. The same about such "meaningful" events as Team Ski Jumping. Worth, at best 1/4th of a Gold.

But may I ask the Olympic Committee, if it is so committed to increasing the number of events and medals, why not Team Figure Skating? Just add the scores of the three entrants form each country, and you have just manufactured another unneeded event. We could have Men’s Team Figure Skating, Women’s Team Figure Skating (all worth 1/3rd of a medal) and maybe even Mixed Team Events, adding the men’s and women’s scores. We would have an event worth 1/6th of a medal. Why ever not? As good, probably as the synchronized swimming medals.

I admit, the details have not been worked out perfectly. But you get the idea.