The European Union has put itself at the top of an Olympic medal tracker, leading to accusations the organisation was attempting to take credit for Britain’s extraordinary Rio success. The EU’s version of the medal table has amalgamated Britain’s golds with the medals won by other European countries to put it firmly on the top.The tally of EU countries’ gold medals was 81 on Thursday night, compared with 30 for the United States. Of those 81 gold medals, 21 were won by British athletes.
To be fair, Britain is (for now) still in the EU, but….
This is not, of course, the first Olympics during which the EU (or rather a German company that works for the EU) has taken this line, which is mainly interesting as an example of the sometimes counter-productive clumsiness with which Brussels or its acolytes attempt to promote a shared ‘European’ identity that is, particularly in Britain, somewhat, how shall I put this, elusive.
And for those wondering why the EU scores, even hypothetically, so well:
The website itself admits the EU medal table is not “entirely fair”. “The 28 EU countries have much higher quota of starting positions than individual competing nations,” it states. “The fictitious ‘EU team’ has therefore a better chance to win medals than the other participating countries.”
But if we’re talking hypothetically, it’s worth noting that the British Empire (including all its former components, America) generally trounces everyone else.