2016 Summer Olympics Medal Count

What would India be?

2022 Winter Olympics to be hosted by China.

They take it more seriously because they bid to host the Winter Olympics? Woudln't that be an argument for every country that ever bid to be a host? And wanting to host takes more than want. After all it is a huge money decision.

Cricket is awesome! I play it at my local pub all the time! ;-)

Cricket matches last too long for the olympics...

Yeah, it would. In India with 1.2 billion people, there is a lot of competition with education; many colleges only accept students with 95% or above. People nowadays are shifting towards a mentality that education can only get you further in life, which is very true in a sense, but Indian parents are enforcing that on children from a very young age, keeping them slightly away from sports, games etc. There is not a complete stop, but India is an agricultural country, and it is very good to see their progress in not only agriculture, but technology, science, commerce, arts etc. Just sports is getting a little less support from Indians, except cricket, hockey, squash and table tennis, of course! The living standard is getting higher and higher. But now India is getting modernized, so in the future, there will hopefully be a rise in Olympic success by Indians. Every country has it's good and bad points. For India, it's Bollywood, but also pollution. There's technology, but not sports.

Bollywood and pollution? Isn't that two bad points?

As well as some points mentioned, In India there is a lack of facilities for most sports and where facilities exist the general public is unable to meet the costs involved. In USA, Australia, Europe just to mention three areas, there are Swimming Pools in just about every town, Gymnasiums in every town, Football grounds, tennis courts, boxing gyms, golf rinks, sports stadiums, velodromes etc. etc............ It is also financially possible, in those areas mentioned, for just about all young people to take part in any sport they fancy....... All schools have coaching and sporting facilities ...... and there are indoor facilities within easy distance if the weather is against outside practice... If those conditions applied to India it would not be long before their population would begin to raise their standing in world sports.

Just as rugby had to go to their 7s code to make it work for the Olympics (traditional 15s tournament couldn't be done in 16 days), cricket could promote 20/20. I'm not advocating that since 20/20 seems to be little more than a batting contest/home run derby, but it's probably the only way that it happens.

@kalbahamut Perhaps, but at least the former is lucrative.

Even if cricket were an Olympic sport, there would be only 1 or 2 events, so it would do little more than make a dent for the Indians.

Well let's make cricket more than 1 or 2 events then. The bloody swimmers get a squillion medals - swim 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, swim this way, that way, any way and before you know it the medal table is swimming with swimmers. Cricket: 20-overs-a-side, then 18-overs, 16-overs, 14-overs-a-side, one or 2-handed bat holding, mens & womens, left or right handed bowling, 3-stump, 1-stump, 5-stump, with umpires or without them.. that'll get the medal numbers up

Unfortunately the cricket world is incredibly corrupt, and India itself has kinda ruined the chances of cricket becoming an Olympic sport and gaining popularity in other countries. If you've heard of Hasan Minhaj and his (now cancelled) show "Patriot Act," he talked about it once. It's kinda a long video, but if you are well and truly interested in learning more (and are okay with swearing), it's worth the watch.

@hwes, Sochi is in Russia, I think you mean Vancouver in 2010.

Hopefully no gas station was harmed or destroyed during the creation and answering of these Olympic quizzes.

Maybe that's fine for you. But what about Disco Stu? Did you even think about him?