Sharing in the gold

Pres. Milan Jirásek of the Czech Olympic Committee told Rádio Impuls that it would be a very good outcome if the Czech team won six medals in London. It would be the same as last time, he said, and spending on Czech sports has not risen much while sports performances in the world have kept improving. Blesk tabloid is more optimistic and expects Czechs to win 10 medals. The Wall Street Journal goes one further and expects 11 medals overall, including three golds. Federalists can lament the breakup of Czechoslovakia 20 years ago, because a combined Czech-Slovak team would win six golds and a total of 20 medals (for 15th place overall), according to the WSJ. Of course if you accept Pavel Rychetský's idea of "shared sovereignty," the CR will have dibs on all of the EU's 91 projected gold medals. That's more than the U.S. and China combined. Enough to make a europhile simply burst with pride.