Asian Participation and Performance at theOlympicGames

Abstract

This paper examines Asian exceptionalism at the Olympics. Northeast Asian countries conform to the statistical norm, whereas the rest of Asia lags, but this result obscures underlying distinctions. Asian women do better than men. Non‐Northeast Asia's relative underperformance is due to the men. Asian performance is uneven across events, finding more success in culturally connected and weight‐stratified contests. The models imply that China, Japan, and South Korea will place among the top 10 medaling countries at the 2016 Games, whereas China will continue to close the medal gap with the United States.

Superior Sporting Performance in Athletics: Determinants and Sustainability

“…There is also evidence for an impact of national expenditures on health and the size of urban population (Moosa and Smith, ; Vagenas and Vlachokyriakou, ) as well as climate (Hoffmann, Ging, and Ramasamy, , ; Johnson and Ali, ; Wellbrock and Maennig, ; Buts et al., 2013; Sun, Wang, and Zhan, ). Some scholars have also detected strong regional effects (Du Bois and Heyndels, ; Otamendi and Doncel, ; Noland and Stahler, , ).…”

“…After some early efforts in the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., Ball, ; Seppänen, ; Novikov and Maximenko, ; Grimes, Kelly, and Rubin, ), scholarly interest in the macrosocial determinants of athletic success has heavily intensified in the last two decades. Much of this research has been guided by the parsimonious theoretical model developed by Bernard and Busse () according to which countries produce Olympic‐caliber athletes using people, money, and some organizational capacity employing Cobb‐Douglas technology (Noland and Stahler, ). The basic assumption is that the population size of a country defines the national talent pool available, while the state of economic development provides the opportunities to develop the talent pool.…”

“…In addition to these “Big Two” explanations (Buts et al., :137), membership in the communist bloc was found to increase medal share at the Olympics . In addition, many studies found a hosting effect (Den Butter and Van der Tak, ; Johnson and Ali, ; De Bosscher, De Knop, and Heyndels, ; Bernard and Busse ; Moosa and Smith ; Bian, ; Pfau, ; Macmillan and Smith, ; Liu and Suen, ; Manuel Luiz and Fadal, ; Leeds and Leeds, ; Bernard and Busse, ; De Bosscher, De Knop, and Heyndels, , ; Lowen, Deaner, and Schmitt, , Sun, Wang, and Zhan, ; Hoffmann, Ging, and Ramasamy, , ; Buts et al., 2013; Lowen, Deaner, and Schmitt, ; Noland and Stahler, )…”

“…However, a convincing theoretical case has been made for gender equality. As gender discrimination is often related to the suppression of female participation in sport, gender equality has proven to be an important factor for achieving success in women's sports (Klein, ; Leeds and Leeds, ; Lowen, Deaner, and Schmitt, ; Noland and Stahler, ). Lowen, Deaner, and Schmitt () even found that higher gender inequality reduces the number of medals won by both men and women.…”

“…Lowen, Deaner, and Schmitt () even found that higher gender inequality reduces the number of medals won by both men and women. It is likely that for the same reason Islamic religion is a negative predictor of sporting success; among others because the religion does not support female sport participation (Sfeir, ; Tcha and Pershin, ; Trivedi and Zimmer, ; Noland and Stahler, ). In general, countries with more sport‐minded cultures (Hoffmann, Ging, and Ramasamy, , ) and sport‐specific histories (Macmillan and Smith, ) seem to be more successful in international sports.…”