LOOKING BEYOND THE OLYMPICS

If you were asked to name countries that have dominated international sports competitions in recent years, a lot of us would probably look first to medal and gold medal counts at recent Olympics. USA (36 Gold, 110 total in 2008), China (51 Gold, 100 total), Russia (23 Gold, 72 total) would probably come to your mind - Big countries which have the "Olympic athlete production factory".

The Winter Olympics have a little more parity with winter specific regions getting a bit of a medal boost, but you'll continue to see the USA, China, and Russia play an influential role in the competition and snag their fair share of medals. Germany is another country who has had respectable performances, most recently finishing with 30 total medals in Vancouver. Olympics has somewhat become the standard for many people in determining which countries having succeeded in their sports programs and in developing top stars. "How many medals did your country win?" might as well be the same as asking "Is my country better (in sports) than yours?"

Now let's look at Spain. Beijing saw Spain produce 5 Gold, 18 total medals. Ukraine, Kenya & Jamaica all had higher Gold medal counts. European countries Italy & France also ranked higher. And when you look at Vancouver, Spain failed to bring back one medal. Certainly not what you would consider a dominating sports country by these standards.

But look past the Olympic medal tally and you'll see that in recent years Spain is one of the most dominating sports countries and has produced some of the top international athletes.

European Football - Clearly the World Cup left a lasting impression on international minds and a newfound respect. But go a couple years back to Spain's 1-0 defeat over Germany for the 2008 European Cup. Barcelona took the 2009 Champions League title and is looking to be the favorite in 2011 after adding Spanish goal scoring machine David Villa to an already formidable line-up.

Cycling - Is Lance Armstrong's record winning 7 Tour de France titles in jeopardy with the world's best cyclist Alberto Contador on the scene? Contador has won the last three Tours he entered (2007, 2009, 2010; missed 2008 due to his team not getting invited) and will only turn 28 in December. 5 more to break the record would put him at 32 years old (Armstrong was 33 when he won his seventh). Something that Contador holds that Armstrong doesn't - all three Grand Tour titles (Italy, France, Spain), making him only the fifth cyclist (and youngest) to capture all three. Contador is currently #1 in the UCI (Union Cycliste International) World Ranking, but it doesn't start & stop with Contador. Four Spaniards (including 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Samuel Sanchez) are in the top ten, helping to make Spain the UCI's top country with about an 800 point cushion over second place Italy.

Tennis - 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Rafa Nadal has pushed strong hold Roger Federer out of the ATP's #1 ranking and has captured both the French Open & Wimbeldon. Starting next week he'll look to capture the one Grand Slam that has eluded him - the US Open. Like cycling, tennis is supported by top Spanish players. Four Spaniards rank in the top twenty (Nadal, Verdasco, Ferrer, Almagro), more than any other country. 2008 & 2009 Davis Cup Champions? You guessed it - Spain!

Basketball - The former Rookie of the Year, three-time All-Star and two-time NBA Champion Paul Gasol is regarded as one of the best players in the USA. Add Marc Gasol, Jose Calderon and Rudy Fernandez to the mix of Spanish talent playing in the NBA. And let's not forget that the NBA is still awaiting the arrival of Ricky Rubio. In Europe, Barcelona is the reigning Euroleague Champions and the Spanish National team is the reigning EuroBasket Champions and has been USA basketball's toughest competition (Silver Medal in Beijing Olympics).

Motorsports - Two-time reigning World Champion is looking to capture F1's crown again with his new supreme team Ferrari and Dani Pedrosa is a dominating force in the MotoGP scene.

Certainly this isn't a full list of Spain's recent sports accomplishments, however I think it shows a number of things:
- While the Olympics is viewed as the ultimate international competition, it is just one indicator of how countries and athletes perform in international events (remember - Spain only won 18 total medals in 2008, 0 in 2010). Maybe since it's the premier event involving a tally of multiple sporting competitions (though not all), it's the closest thing we have to comparing countries in an overall sporting category. But we are too quick to count medals as benchmarks for determining which sports countries have the best sport programs and athletes.

- Is it even fair to compare countries like the USA to Spain in Olympic medal counts? For starters, the USA has a greater number of people, which means a larger talent pool and many more sport offerings that can be publicly and privately funded. Clearly countries who can spread their talent pool across many sports, hold the best medal chances.
- In our society, we always want to put a rank to everything. Supposedly it wasn't good enough to have just rankings in individual college sports (football, basketball, baseball), so an overall college sports ranking by division. Due to widespread discrepancies between collegiate programs and conferences, this hasn't caught on as well as the higher-ups would like. The public and media still value individual sport rankings more than the title of "best collegiate sports program in the nation." When was the last time you heard a conversation in a bar go like this: "What's your college's NACDA ranking?"

- Spain, like other smaller countries, has been successful in "picking" (mainly dictated by public and national interest, commercial opportunities, etc.) a handful of sports and developing talent. It just so happens that in the past few years, many of these sports , at the same time, have had influential Spanish athletes who have achieved international results in major competitions.

So when discussing a country's sport success, let's look beyond the obvious Olympics. As great an event as it is, medal counting should not be the deciding factor in determining the success of a nation's sports programs or athletes. I think Spain is the greatest example of this and in my opinion, outside of the World Cup, a country that hasn't received the recognition it deserves. It's a country that has developed significant sports superstars & achieved enviable results on national and international levels. Now for me to put an overall sports ranking on Spain? I'll pass, why I'm sure others will continue to try to figure it out.

You can write to me directly at jaredmelzer@mac.com or follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/jaredmelzer.

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