Equity of Olympic gold medal

By Park Moo-jong

The fete is ongoing.

Rio 2016 is cruising along against earlier worries amid a global sigh of relief.

Team Korea was slow in the first half of the 17-day competition in terms of winning gold medals.

People were watching TV deep into the hot, sizzling nights through the early morning. Some players made people feel happy, helping them beat the heat and others not, adding to the scorcher.

On early Wednesday morning, an "incredible" come-from-behind victory by fencer Park Sang-young over Hungarian Imre Genza in the individual epee became a breath of fresh air.

Early yesterday morning, South Korea stopped Mexico in soccer to join the final eight, lifting the people's spirits when they were tired in the rare summer heat.

To the contrary, the "unexpected" elimination of our world top rankers in judo, men's archery and sharpshooting in the early rounds was a disappointment to the people.

But what's the problem? As the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre Coubertin, said, the most important thing is not to win, but to participate, namely not the triumph, but the struggle.

What's important is whether they did their best. And Team Korea is doing well. Competing in the global sporting extravaganza is itself a great honor for any athletes.

In every game, there is a winner and a loser. The color of the medal should be meaningless.

Every time I watch the Olympic or Asian games, I feel there's something missing: a question about the equity of a gold medal.

In Rio 2016, Team Korea targets "10 & 10," namely 10 gold medals and 10th place in the gold medal tally.

My question and also many people's is that is the gold medal tally "fair" as that of the 11-player soccer team is the same as that of an individual sport contestant.

In order to win a medal at the Rio 2016, the 11 members of a soccer team, for instance, have to play three games in the first round, one in the quarterfinals, one in the semifinals and the last one in the finals for a total of six games.

Many sports lovers, myself included, believe and insist that the exact number of medals won by a team should be added to a nation's medal table. In other words, the soccer team's gold medal should be counted as 11 and in basketball as five, and so on.

Adding to the inequity is the fact that there can be no "multiple" gold medal winners in team events, whereas a swimmer, runner, sharpshooter, archer and gymnast, among others, can earn several gold.

For instance, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps swam "into history" by having 21 gold medals to his name after he got his 19th in helping his country clinch the gold in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay.

The 31-year-old has bagged a total of 25 medals, so far, in four Olympics in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Previous "record holders" include Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi (nine gold and three silver in 1920 in Antwerp, 1924 in Paris and 1928 in Amsterdam), Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (18 medals, including nine gold in 1956 in Melbourne, 1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo). Sprinter Carl Lewis and swimmer Mark Spitz were also multiple gold medal winners in the late 20th century.

Battle sports players like boxers, judokas, taekwondoists and wrestlers "suffer" the same disadvantage because of the various weight categories.

I have other questions about the value of the medal, depending on its color gold, silver or bronze.

To win a medal and stand on the awarding podium is really a great thing.

Who is not dying to see their players win gold? Why do many silver medalists shed tears?

Throughout the Games period, are Koreans too obsessed with digging for gold in a "gold-for-gold's sake rush" like that seen in California in late 1840s.

Our players reactions often appeared bizarre to the world people during international competitions.

Those who grabbed silver or bronze medals in fierce contests did not look happy about their prizes at all, except for a few like marathoner Lee Bong-ju, who finished second for a silver only a mere three seconds after the South African winner in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In the ongoing Rio 2016, South Korea's judo hopeful Jeong Bo-gyeong lost to Paula Pareto of Argentina in the finals of the women's 48 kg division. She was shedding tears.

"Why was she crying? She won such a silver medal," one of my foreign sports lovers asked me.

On the victory podium for the medalists of the men's individual epee competition, the runner-up from Hungary, who suffered a reversal to Park Sang-young, looked really sullen, while Park and bronze medalist Gauthier Grumier of France were biting their medals in delight.

A really bizarre scene was created by North Korea's No. 2 man, Choe Yong-hae, who visited the weightlifting venue to "cheer" his countryman Om Yun-chol, defending champion, in the men's 56-kg category, Sunday.

When Om finished second after China's Long Qingquan, the North Korean People's Army vice marshal and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission left the stadium in a huff and a crestfallen weightlifter apologized for failing to be a hero to his people.

Times are changing. We need to discard the old-fashioned formula of evaluating the performance of our Olympic team by counting the number of gold medals it wins. We need to enjoy the contest. By the way, our Korean Olympians are doing fairly well away from home.

Park Moo-jong is The Korea Times advisor. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter for the daily since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.