FCBARCELONA.CAT

25.08.2008 11:59

Barça on the podium: 10 out of 22 with a medal

Roger Bogunyà

On the day after the conclusion of the Olympic games it’s time to take stock. Of the 22 Barcelona sportspeople who went to China, as many as 10 have come back with a medal hanging round their neck.

This figure, 10 from 22, means that 45% of those participants from Barça have achieved the aim they had on leaving on the trip to Asia for the games. A total of 10 medals is the booty brought home by the Barça sportspeople, a success that very few clubs in the world can boast. The club’s vocation to many sports, as mentioned in the latest Barça magazine, is what has allowed this result, at very few clubs in the world’s disposal.

Barça, 34th in a fictitious medal ranking

The games’ medal ranking is the way of measuring the global success of each of the Olympic committees represented. It is sufficiently evident that FC Barcelona did not take part as such in Peking, but this doesn’t stop us from translating these results to see how well Barça’s sportspeople performed in this Olympic classification. The two gold, one silver and one bronze won- all in team sports and therefore counted globally- would have allowed the club to finish in 34th position in the medal ranking. Behind Barça would be committees like Argentina and Switzerland, who won two gold and four bronzes.

Medals in three out of four sports

The 22 Barça sportspeople who took part in the games were involved in four different sports: basketball, handball, football and athletics. Except for the last, they won medals in each of the other disciplines.