Olympic Medal Count or GO Canada GO!

[kandrathe]

China, I'd bet. They might not be the favorite to hedge out the US normally, but with home field advantage...well, the roar of the crowd has to have SOME impact on judges.

Home field advantage is a number of things. Their athletes have less stressors, like travel, lodging, food differences, etc. The US tends to have the advantage in that we are bigger than many nations, we have leisure time and wealth to devote to non-productive activities, and we usually welcome emigration of reknowned talent, whether that be athletics, arts, or sciences. Many of our best athletes emigrated to the US. I have a good friend who defected from the East German boxing team. If fact, I find that many of the worlds best athletes spend much of their time training in the US because of the many cities with world class international sports facilities (e.g. Colorado Springs for skating, Chula Vista for track and field, etc.) and some of the best international coaches.