Tower Bridge in London decorated with the symbolic Olympic rings. Picture taken by FTF’s very own Seonaid MacDonald.
It’s that time again – the Olympic Games – something I look forward to every two years. Personally, I’ve been a bit obsessed by the Olympics since I was a kid. There’s nothing like hearing a story about an upcoming star athlete and rooting for them on screen with all your might. Once in college, I was standing on my bed screaming so hard for the U.S.A. women’s relay swimmers that one of my neighbors came knocking on my door to see if I was OK. So, you can understand why I let out a restrained squeal on NJ Transit Monday morning when I opened up the Wall Street Journal and came across a special section solely devoted to the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
As I read each article with eyes wide open and my fellow unhappy Monday commuters looking at my grin with pure annoyance, it came as no surprise that the cover story, Who’s Going to Win?, predicts the U.S. to win the most medals in the Games overall with a total of 108 and the most gold wins at 40. After the U.S., the Journal predicts China to come in second place for the most medals overall with 92 and the most gold with 38. While my first instinct as a proud American was, Well, of course we will be the big winners!, the Journal wasn’t just being ethnocentric too, they have an actual forecasting system that takes into account interviews with experts and athletes’ performances at recent national and international competitions to make their predictions. Even though this legitimizes the slightly egotistical prediction, I am still proud to see the U.S.A. at the top of the list.
Top 10 medals winners according to the WSJ
| Country | Gold | Total |
| U.S. | 40 | 108 |
| China | 38 | 92 |
| Russia | 29 | 83 |
| Britain | 22 | 66 |
| Germany | 16 | 49 |
| Australia | 13 | 42 |
| Japan | 13 | 39 |
| France | 9 | 31 |
| Italy | 9 | 30 |
| Kenya | 8 | 18 |
Source: Wall Street Journal, Monday, July 23, 2012.
So, needless to say, whichever country wins the most Gold, it will be interesting to watch the games unfold and to quantify the accuracy of the Journal’s system. Whatever the turnout might be, may the best man or woman win. Let the Games begin! Go U.S.A.!
If you would like to weigh in on who YOU predict will win the most gold in these Games, weigh in at www.ftfnews.com via our interactive Finger on the Pulse polling feature. To date, 73.68% of our readers agree with the Journal and predict the U.S. to win the most gold, with China in second.
Visit www.WSJ.com/Olympics to see the Journal’s top 50 predictions and for a detailed schedule of events!
Go Team U.S.A.
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