(edit title) Sweden: The epitome of lagom and equality Practice what you preach Options

[Snood]

I just discovered this whilst reading an article on the BBC website. It seems that the Swedish Olympic and Paralympic teams achieved precisely the same medal count as eachother. I thought it an amusing reflection of the equality which swedes pride themselves in.

See the graph in the story here

Disclaimer: No, I'm not swede bashing, I just thought it was an amusing coincidence worth sharing

[skogsbo]

It seems that the Swedish Olympic and Paralympic teams achieved precisely the same medal count as eachother. I thought it an amusing reflection of the equality which swedes pride themselves in.

clearly the Swedish paraolympians we ordered to stop winning, as it would be unswedish to soundly thrash those able bodied athletes in the medals race.

It's a strange one, because if like the UK it's disabled athletes do proportionally better than fully able bodied athletes, does it mean that disabled sport is better funded than able bodied sport, or paralympic athletes are more motivated, or that other nations have a poor record of funding disabled sport etc.. you could draw a number of conclusions, or it could be a tiny bit of several factors.

I suspect a major factor in the UK success is that many nations struggle both physically and financially to field an able bodied team for the first games, never mind also put in a competitive side for the paraolympics. So the UK as is in a position to field a huge number of athletes and increase the odds of winning more medals, merely by having a competitor in nearly every event.

[Hamsterdam]

Funny enough, I met a Swedish paralympian at the airport the other day. He had cuts and bruises all over his face and so I asked him whether he participated in the boxing?.

"No" he replied, "the hurdles"

[Svensksmith]

chuckle

[Hamsterdam]

But seriously, in what must be a Paralympic first, China has entered conjoined twins in the 200 meters race.

They are expected to finish neck and neck.

[Hamsterdam]

What does a Paralympian fear the most?

Testing positive for WD-40.