As for Ukraine, these Olympics were underwhelming since we only finished in 22nd place on the medal table despite previously competing for top 10 placements. There were some additional gold medals opportunities within reach. We completely failed in swimming, tennis, and some other sports. Still, the result is somehow decent considering the circumstances. What about your country?
Only in terms of golds. Our total medal count was exceptional - we just struggled a bit with that conversion. I don’t know how much of that is just bad luck or evidence of a decline in funding/training/talent.
I don’t believe it’s indicative of decline. I think the consistent medal count means that our athletes are every bit as good it’s just a combination of bad luck and incredibly fine margins. Although if our gold medal count in ‘28 disappoints just as much then I think there’s room for questions.
That’s my thinking on it. We were third in total medals behind America and China - that doesn’t seem like a decline to me. As you say, the margins are very fine! 3 or 4 more golds and we’d be unanimous in our success. And some golds that could have ”easily” happened, didn’t.
Like you point out, time will tell. To me It just shows how far we’ve come that 7th place feels like an underperformance. It was only 28 years ago that we finished 36th! A single gold medal, behind North Korea, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan.
There was a reasonable amount of bad luck and a lot of missed golds by tiny tiny margins. Not a decline, just evidence of how strong the competition is in some key events.