AHC:*BAD* USA Olympic results...

CalBear

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Bus accident in Lake Placid 1980. Nothing fatal, couple broken bones among the Speed Skating Team. U.S. won 12 medal in Lake Placid (3rd place), eight of them were by three speed skaters: Eric Heiden (5 G), Leah Poulos Mueller (2 S), Beth Heiden (1 B). Without those three athletes you wind up with 4 medals for the U.S., putting them into a three way tie with Sweden and Liechtenstein for 9th (Netherlands gains two medals in this scenario, leap-frogging Switzerland in the standings). That puts the U.S. one slip by either of figure skating Bronze Medalists from 11th place.
 
As a general response, I've added Summer to my original criteria (sorry, to me they are the Olympics and the Winter Olympics). As many have noted, in many *Winter* Olympics (especially before the US friendly Winter X-games events got added) the US has been a Bus accident or so from finishing even or worse with countries that the Average American (and a few members of the US State Department) can't find on a map.
 

Jasen777

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I'd suggest a German victory in WW1 would provide a counterweight to the US and the rest is a vortex of circumstances that sees Germany do very well in a year when the US does particularly poorly.

One (more) country beating the U.S. isn't pushing them outside the top 10 though.
 
Having the main sponsors of the Olympics not beeing USA franschices might help a great deal, then the results of doping tests might be clearer when it comes to US athletes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lewis#Stimulant_use He escaped becauce he was USA.

Having strikt amature rules when it comes to sports. That way no NBA-dominance since 1992. Also, the US women soccer team would have trouble since most of their players have been full time pros.

In Winter remove freestyle skiing and snowboard and cut the US medals almost in half(12 medals in 2014 just from those two sports)

1936 (first time basketball was in Olympics); 1948 (there were no Olympics in 40 or 44); 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016. Those are the years USA men's basketball won gold medal. Unbroken streak from 1936 until the boycot in 1980 (cant win if you don't show up), and no actual loss until 1988 and even then they still place bronze both times (1988 Bronze, 2004 Bronze). So... let's see, you state NBA dominance since 1992 yet only one loss prior to 1992, and another loss after 1992... USA did better prior to no NBA and actually alot of other countries would do worse if you didn't let them have their citizens who played in the NBA participate (or might not allow them to participate in the NBA because then they'd be disqualified from the Olympics).

Jeez, this anti-America crap gets old especially when it is blatantly unresearched and for the sole purpose of saying "grrr, America bad". If Americans on AH.com talked about a foreign nation (especially some popular ones like Philippines and China) in a way that some people talk about America there would be post after post screaming bloody murder and a moderator would be called upon I'm sure; and rightly so. So, how about we cool it with America does everything wrong in the world and is corrupt crap, ok? There's plenty of truthful stuff out there you dont need to make up stuff. Google is your friend.

Edit- USA also came in silver in 1972 as well. So three losses in history. 2 of which prior to NBA.
 
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1936 (first time basketball was in Olympics); 1948 (there were no Olympics in 40 or 44); 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016. Those are the years USA men's basketball won gold medal. Unbroken streak from 1936 until the boycot in 1980 (cant win if you don't show up), and no actual loss until 1988 and even then they still place bronze both times (1988 Bronze, 2004 Bronze). So... let's see, you state NBA dominance since 1992 yet only one loss prior to 1992, and another loss after 1992... USA did better prior to no NBA and actually alot of other countries would do worse if you didn't let them have their citizens who played in the NBA participate (or might not allow them to participate in the NBA because then they'd be disqualified from the Olympics).

Jeez, this anti-America crap gets old especially when it is blatantly unresearched and for the sole purpose of saying "grrr, America bad". If Americans on AH.com talked about a foreign nation (especially some popular ones like Philippines and China) in a way that some people talk about America there would be post after post screaming bloody murder and a moderator would be called upon I'm sure; and rightly so. So, how about we cool it with America does everything wrong in the world and is corrupt crap, ok? There's plenty of truthful stuff out there you dont need to make up stuff. Google is your friend.

Edit- USA also came in silver in 1972 as well. So three losses in history. 2 of which prior to NBA.
He does have a point, though. If the Olympics kept to stricter amateur rules, it would make certain events far more competitive. Now I do disagree with his implying doping is the reason the US is so dominant. That's an insult to athletes who have earned their triumphs.
 

CalBear

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He does have a point, though. If the Olympics kept to stricter amateur rules, it would make certain events far more competitive. Now I do disagree with his implying doping is the reason the US is so dominant. That's an insult to athletes who have earned their triumphs.
No they wouldn't be more competitive. There might be different countries that dominated, but it would be the same as now. All you have to do is look back at the old Soviet and East German teams. They were professionals in all but name. Their athletes were generally "militarily personnel" (who just happened to be the best hockey players or gymnasts on Earth) or had sham jobs.

What allowing professionals into the Olympics has done is change the competitions for the better. No way Bolt manages three Olympic teams if he has to work full time, no way Phelps does his miracles. The only way you have legitimate amateurs making two or more Olympics is they happen to be increadibly wealthy (that, BTW, was the original reason for Amateur only, it kept out the riff-raff). The 1992 "Dream Team" destroyed everyone, they also gave international pro ball a huge boost, to the point that the 2004 U.S. team was 3rd, and this year's team was a lucky bounce from having to go OT in one of the qualifier games. The presence of U.S. pros improved the game for everyone. The presence of pros changed Hockey from being a one note song to having serious competition.

What used to happen, back before professionals, was that American college athletes would dominate the pool (prior to 1980 each country could send three athletes per event), the track would be fairly competitive, but most athletes were one and done. As an example, in 1976 U.S. men won 9 of 10 solo and both relays. won 9 of 10 solo silvers (same guy, David Wilkie UK prevented the 1-2 sweep) and five of 10 bronze. The U.S. women ran into the first big, and REALLY obvious case of doping with the DDR women (it was amazing to look at the DDR female swimmers, 'Rioded out to the MAX). In 1980, the Soviets made sure to get the rules chanced when the Western Countries boycotted, so that ended the G/S/B sweeps.
 
One (more) country beating the U.S. isn't pushing them outside the top 10 though.

Not by itself no, but I imagine it to be an enabler. Without a couple of serious rivals with big talent pools and a lot of resources the US isn't going to be squeezed out, there needs to be both internal problems within the US and the US team coupled with a surge from the other big players to take advantage of this.
 
Jeez, this anti-America crap gets old especially when it is blatantly unresearched and for the sole purpose of saying "grrr, America bad". If Americans on AH.com talked about a foreign nation (especially some popular ones like Philippines and China) in a way that some people talk about America there would be post after post screaming bloody murder and a moderator would be called upon I'm sure; and rightly so. So, how about we cool it with America does everything wrong in the world and is corrupt crap, ok? There's plenty of truthful stuff out there you dont need to make up stuff. Google is your friend.

Edit- USA also came in silver in 1972 as well. So three losses in history. 2 of which prior to NBA.

Has anyone really been anti American so far in this thread. As its virtually impossible to dethrone the US from the top of the medal table without some strange almost ASB plot lines how could it be anything other than mildly anti US or more likely anti US administrator definitely not anti US athletes.

If you dont like your country being critiscised try being British everyone hates us.
 
Has anyone really been anti American so far in this thread. As its virtually impossible to dethrone the US from the top of the medal table without some strange almost ASB plot lines how could it be anything other than mildly anti US or more likely anti US administrator definitely not anti US athletes.

If you dont like your country being critiscised try being British everyone hates us.
Aww, not everyone hates you. My ancestor loved you guys so much he came over in 1066 and never left haha!
 
How's this for a scenario based upon the fact that countries do well at their home Games and the Olympics or two afterwards. Its all very vague, its a sequence of events rather than a TL based on a certain games or anything.

Germany wins WW1, AH stays together, France and Britain enter a strategic customs union and foster tighter ties with their empires as does Japan and Russia recovers from its civil war. The Games are held in AH, Russia, German and then Britain and these countries do very well at their home Games and have large performance inertia afterwards. In contrast the US is going through both an economic slump and a phase of small government and in these games fields smaller than usual teams of weaker athletes.

As a result the big European Empires and Japan take the top 6 spots on the medal tally with Italy coming 7th, the best the USA can achieve is a lowly 8th down with the Latin Americans and the Spanish.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
if its just single Summer Games, wouldnt some outside event could do this easily ?

2016 Brazilian Games were considered by sports connoiseur to be worst sport event in history, there is good reason for that. Outbreak of Rio flu, while fairly mild, happen at most unfortunate times. 90% of athlete get sick for at least three days. The results were extremely chaotic, who got sick determine winner more than best athlete. USA favorite to win, knocked out to 11th place, Great Britain won zero medal, Russian and Italy fall to 16 and 21 place. several 'universality place' athlete won medal by simply avoiding get sick. results in many sports considered to be random luck. sniffing, sweating athlete become iconic image of the games.
 
As was pointed out above, the easiest trick would be to somehow do away with American dominance in swimming and track and field. Since both these events are an essential part of the Olympics, stripping them away completely is ASB. But how about their main athletes being absent?

Consider this: in Sydney 2000, American swimmers alone got 12 gold medals. They repeated this in 2004, followed by 12 gold medals in Peking, and a staggering 16 in 2012 and 2016 respectively. That's quite a solid bloc. In track and field, the USA wasn't that dominating, but still always on the first rank with roughly between 6 and 9 gold medals each time. In Rio, though, they got 13 - which means that 29 gold medals were won in swimming and track and field alone.

Even if you have certain individual athletes like Marion Jones (in 2000), Michael Phelps (2004-2012), Missy Franklin (2012) or Katie Ledecky (in 2016) out of the race, Team USA won't be the dominating force to be reckoned with. So basically the BALCO scandal would have to come up a bit earlier, with larger consequences, like a partial boycott of certain federations (like FINA) against American athletes. They might actually send some of their younger college atheles, who would also do very well, but not in that kind of dominant way.
 
No they wouldn't be more competitive. There might be different countries that dominated, but it would be the same as now. All you have to do is look back at the old Soviet and East German teams. They were professionals in all but name. Their athletes were generally "militarily personnel" (who just happened to be the best hockey players or gymnasts on Earth) or had sham jobs.

<snip>.

the 'combat athlete' is not solely a WarPac phenomena , although in the case of the western nations 'combat athletes', it's the fact they were serving military that facilitated their training rather than being appointed to the military as a sham job.

More than a few british olympians in the cold war era were officially Military PTIs ...
 
1936 (first time basketball was in Olympics); 1948 (there were no Olympics in 40 or 44); 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016. Those are the years USA men's basketball won gold medal. Unbroken streak from 1936 until the boycot in 1980 (cant win if you don't show up), and no actual loss until 1988 and even then they still place bronze both times (1988 Bronze, 2004 Bronze). So... let's see, you state NBA dominance since 1992 yet only one loss prior to 1992, and another loss after 1992... USA did better prior to no NBA and actually alot of other countries would do worse if you didn't let them have their citizens who played in the NBA participate (or might not allow them to participate in the NBA because then they'd be disqualified from the Olympics).

Jeez, this anti-America crap gets old especially when it is blatantly unresearched and for the sole purpose of saying "grrr, America bad". If Americans on AH.com talked about a foreign nation (especially some popular ones like Philippines and China) in a way that some people talk about America there would be post after post screaming bloody murder and a moderator would be called upon I'm sure; and rightly so. So, how about we cool it with America does everything wrong in the world and is corrupt crap, ok? There's plenty of truthful stuff out there you dont need to make up stuff. Google is your friend.

Edit- USA also came in silver in 1972 as well. So three losses in history. 2 of which prior to NBA.

Sorry about that. I am not to into basketball
 

AndyC

Donor
In another timeline, in July, 1900, an attempt was made to create a US Collegiate Athletics Track and Field event that would become the greatest US sports event ever.
A famous US multi-millionnaire endowed the event, which would be held biennially, in even-numbered years. Despite his hopes, only 1900 and 1902 could be described as successes, with the 1904 event folded into the St Louis Olympics, triggering a desire to attend the 1906 Intercalated Olympics in Athens and the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. The death of the sponsor, [xxxx] (a colossally successful businessman who did not have an analogue in OTL) in 1903 probably contributed to this.

A large group of collegiate athletes who had been intending to compete in the Paris Olympics therefore did not go.

Separately, the IOC decided that the golf tournament at the Paris Olympics, being heavily disorganised and consisting of competitors from only four countries, would be regarded as an unofficial sport. This did not cause controversy as most competitors were indeed unaware that the event in which they competed was supposed to be part of the Olympics in the first place [In OTL, the women's champion never did know she was an Olympic gold-medallist for this very reason; it took many years to track her down to tell her in which time she had sadly passed on].

The 1900 Paris Games remains the worst result for the USA other than the boycotted Moscow Olympics. With one solitary gold medal in rowing and three bronze medals (in tennis, sailing and cycling), and a position on the medals table of 14th, it remains the only time that the US has finished below India, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and, embarassingly, Cuba. Their sole relief was that they finished one place above Canada.
 
Zika becomes much worse than we think it is.

Americans are told to travel at their own risk.

Many American athletes drop out.

There.
The insurers for the US Olympic team get petrified at the idea of US athletes getting pregnant, and refuse any coverage for female athletes. The Olympic committee doesn't dare send anyone uncovered, and so only the men go. Since women won more medals than men for the US, the medal count is cut in half.
 
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