Is it just me or are there other people who feel the focus on country medal haul is just feeding nationionalism. Pity that the Olympics is all about how many medals a country wins rather than celebrating individual success.
Isn’t this kind of overt competitive nationalism a poison.
Is it the same across other countries? Team France or DB?
Quite turns me off.
Well, I suppose the small insignificant island off the coast of mighty Europe has to clutch as some straws as they sink deeper into despair…
Well the ROC is all about individuals!!! 
And they are doing well.
But more seriously focus on the looking out for the EOR team (équipe olympique des réfugiés). That’s who I support…
Tongue firmly in cheek I suppose?!
And is there a Team Bleu…aka Franc.
After Indyref2…what will be the position of TeamGB for the Paris Olympics !
Team GB…seems this would exclude NI…shouldn’t it be Team UK?
FFS, this is all about personal achievement.
Where is the nationalism in that?
I’m reporting everyone but Tim17 for being filthy homophobes for not immediately singing the National anthem in a pair of rainbow budgie smugglers to celebrate Tom’s gold medal.
Tim, are you saying that LGBT people can’t be nationalistic? Shame 
I agree John, 1936 and then the cold war buggered it all up.
Smart arse comment as usual John.
I used Tom Daley as an example to show that it is all about personal achievement and perseverance but I could have easily have mentioned the Team GB mountain biker who won gold despite being hit by a car and breaking his collar bone a couple of months ago.
I’ll pass your constructive comment on to my arse Tim and I’m sure it will respond in due course. 
Meanwhile, IMO the Olympics has turned into a corrupt circus. Obviously Hitler’s frustrated attempt to use it as a showcase for Aryan superiority was a low point and the USA and USSR using it as a proxy battleground didn’t help. For what it’s worth I think the Olympics should be about athletes competing against one another, not countries.
alleluia to that 
even better when a physically challenged athlete beats the shit out of a so called “normal” one…
I saw that happen with a wheelchair bound table tennis player once - very satisfying.
From the beginning the Olympics has always been about states competing against each other.
So?
I’m not being a smartarse, but I don’t see how what has gone before has any relevance other than being a basic statement of fact about the past. Maybe it’s time to change that then.
really?
I’m not old enough to remember Tim, so I’ll take your word for it.
At the very start the competitors represented either cities or local state/areas which then morphed into effectively a competition amongst countries when the modern Olympics begin in 1896.
My biggest gripe with the Olympics is that many sports now involve professional competitors or teams.
The point of my originating post intimated that the Olympic have been high jacked by much, but not all, of the media into the “national medal haul” rather then individuals wanting to be a gold winner as an indication they sit at the top of their sport.
It’s not the sportspeople…must not be sexist…who have done this but like in many other areas of life at present the national medal table has become to be used to by popularist politicians for their own ends.
Have just seen that Simone Biles has withdrawn from the american gymnastic team for a medical condition, which will be assessed on a daily basis.
A chance for someone else now.