地址：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1eq4y1Q765

Which is the strongest Olympic team of all time?

Politics and geography?often determine national success at the Olympics

What does an international team need to be successful at the Olympic games? Money and resources for talent identification and training, a big population for diversity of physical attributes（特質(zhì)勺远，屬性） and skills, and a culture that pushes people towards sports participation（運動參與度）, are all sensible suggestions. At the 32nd Summer Olympics, which opened in Tokyo on July 23rd,America is expected to win the most medals—as it has done in the previous six Olympiads（奧運會橙喘，奧林匹克大賽）. But many of the teams that have been successful in the modern games have benefitted from two key elements: home advantage and favourable（有利的） politics.

the Olympic athlete 奧林匹克運動員

the Olympic medalist 奧運獎牌獲得者

physical attributes：身體素質(zhì)

Since the first modern Olympic games in Athens in1896, the country with home advantage has won the most medals ten times. These include the first five hosts, from 1896 to 1912, who found it much easier than other nations to get their athletes to participate. At the 1904 games in StLouis, Missouri, America won nearly 85% of the 280 medals available. At the time travel to the Midwest was laborious（耗時費力的） and Russia and Japan were at war in the Pacific. As a result American athletes represented about 80% of the total competitors that year.

represent v. 在此翻譯為 相當(dāng)于 等于

Olympic results have also been affected by geopolitical（地緣政治的）?ructions（憤怒的抗議 爭吵）. Since the second world war the two most lopsided（歪斜的，不平等的）outcomes, in which one country dominated most heavily, were the triumph of the Soviet Union in 1980 and America in 1984. Again, both of these teams were athome, but the greater boost（推動力） was conferred（授予） by a particularly intense period in the cold war, when domestic politics of each country led teams to boycott（抵制） the other’s tournament（錦標(biāo)賽）. America, along with 64 other nations, refused to participate in Moscow in 1980. Four years later the Soviets and 13 of their allies（盟友） declined to take part in the Los Angeles games. The absence of their biggest rival enabled the host to dominate. The Soviet medal tally（積分胶逢，數(shù)目） jumped from 20% in 1976 to 31% in 1980, while America’s rose from 15% in 1976 to 25% in1984.

conferre on sb.

decline to do .拒絕做某事

It is unlikely that such dominance will ever be repeated. Contemporary Olympic teams would now need to be exceptional（杰出的） across a much wider range of disciplines, from badminton to beach volleyball, surfing to sport climbing (this year’s two newest disciplines). The total number of medals has increased from 600 in 1972 to over 1,000 this year. Although China’s rise in the Olympic medals table（獎牌榜） has gone hand-in-hand（密切關(guān)聯(lián)） with its economic growth, it is yet to win more medals than America. Gracenote, a sports analytics company,thinks that Team USA will win 96 medals this year and China 66. Japan, it thinks, will use its home advantage to win 61 medals, compared with 41 for2016.

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