University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
London Log-In - August 12, 2012
August 12, 2012 | Bruin Athletics, Olympics
UCLA athletes, coaches, alumni and staff share their experiences at the 2012 Olympics. UCLA Associate Athletic Director Mike Sondheimer looks at UCLA's impressive Olympic numbers.
Aug. 12, 2012
 Mike Sondheimer  |
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When you talk to anyone that has attended a USA college and is either participating or working at the Olympics, there is definitely pride and competition. This may not have been UCLA's best Olympic Games with softball being dropped and men's soccer not qualifying, but we still had participation in the top 5% of all colleges.
I know the crosstown school likes to put out statistics that shows how powerful they are at the Olympic Games, but I wanted to put out some stats I was using here in London if I met anyone - our crew has a wide variety of colleges besides UCLA that includes Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, USC, Fordham, NYU, and Boise State.
1. Since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, if UCLA was its own country, we would be 5th in the world in gold medals behind the USA, China, Russia and Germany.
2. We have competed in four less Olympic Games than USC (based on when we were founded - we haven't even hit our 100th anniversary), but heading into this year's Games, we would rank as the 18th country in the world in overall medals (USC is 17th) and would rank #13 as a country in gold medals (USC is #12).
3. In comparing USC and UCLA (according to statistics compiled prior to the Games from our intern Ricky Darling), UCLA has averaged 17.9 athletes per Olympics to 15.2 for USC. We have averaged 11 total medals per Olympics and 5.4 gold medals, while USC has averaged 10.1 medals and 4.7 gold medals.
4. UCLA's updated totals are: 396 Olympians; 125 gold, 65 silver, 60 bronze (250 total)
5. If you look at the list of the 100 greatest Olympians of all-time, we have 10 selected from UCLA. USC has 7.
I have a lot of pride in being on the NBC crew from UCLA and did all I can to represent our university in any talks or arguments where colleges are a part of it.
Mike Sondheimer
UCLA Associate Athletic Director/Director of On-Campus Recruiting and Academic Admissions
