Wikipedia:Featured list removal candidates/1984 Summer Olympics medal table/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

Notified: Miyagawa, Wikipedia:WikiProject Olympics and Wikipedia:WikiProject California

I am nominating this for featured list removal for a few glaring, but probably easily addressable, issues:

Complete lack of information on the fact that Russia and other countries boycotted these Olympics, which is the primary reason that the USA and other countries were so successful. The boycott's impact on the medal table is a crucial detail that should have its own section.
There is almost no discussion about medal records, outside of the USA. Other countries set records, especially due to the boycott.
More recent versions of this type of list (2016 Summer Olympics medal table) identify "Changes in medal standings" as a section. This should be explored in this article as well.
More recent versions of this type of list (2020 Summer Olympics medal table) provides maps showing medal distribution across the globe. These would be very helpful here.
References need to be beefed up.
The lead is quite lite, especially in comparison to current FLC standards. More should be added, especially after the details above are added. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 16:45, 9 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Given that the 1984 Summer Olympics are my favorite edition of the Olympics and I've recently helped promote the 2012 Summer Olympics (which are my second favorite Olympics) to featured list status, I can help save this list from demotion. However, I do not know how to make a map for the medal distribution. Therefore, I will need help on that front. Nevertheless, I'll try since I don't plan on promoting a new FLC until December.

--Birdienest81 (talk) 06:44, 11 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I was told to visit this page and provide my rationale for keeping an updated version of the article. So, there we go:

1) Current version mentions Soviet boycott but instead of simply saying that the USSR did not participate, it presents Soviet government's stated reasons for boycott (that are universally questioned) as fact. As 1984 Summer Olympics boycott states, there're many versions, and the most probable of them is retaliation for the 1980 boycott. Other suggested stricter doping controls etc.

2) Current version fails to mention the record nature of USA’s performance, namely their 83 gold medals. 1980 Summer Olympics medal table notably mentions Soviet records.

3) The current version erroneously credits West Germany with 59 gold medals instead of 59 total medals

4) Current version fails to note the record-breaking nature of Romania's performance, namely their second-best total of 20 gold medals.

An updated version fixes all that. Sorry for using that stupid dynamic IP, I know that creating an account makes your edits more trustworthy.109.197.205.158 (talk) 17:43, 11 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Given that I am attending a funeral today, I won't be able to work on this until at least Monday.

--Birdienest81 (talk) 07:53, 14 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Summary of changes

This section will enumerate the changes that have so far been done to the list. I will update this as I complete a major task.

Added new table to "Changes in medal standings" which is modeled after the 2012 Summer Olympics medal table. It includes summary of the redistribution of medals, which athletes were affected, and a brief explanation of what happened in each case. Furthermore, another table was added to show how the medals re-allocations affected the medal tally.

--Birdienest81 (talk) 08:49, 17 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Replaced all the images with the new ones because most of the old ones were derived from sources whose links give me an error message. Thus the old images would most likely not follow fair use rules

--Birdienest81 (talk) 09:41, 17 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

UPDATE: I'm currently making changes to this list on User:Birdienest81/sandbox twenty-three. I'm currently working on the paragraph explaining ties by adding more sources since the original one is too highly dependent on one source. So, I am adding a few more newspaper resources. I should be able to get a little bit more done since my FLC for the 1984 Oscars is winding down, and I don't plan to do another FLC until at least early October.

--Birdienest81talk 08:54, 27 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's definitely looking better. Please ping me when you feel like everything has been addressed and I will give it another thorough review. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 21:53, 27 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

UPDATE: I've transferred a better quality version of this list from the sandbox I was using to edit the article. I've added more citations, and rearranged sentences for better flow. I've added a sentence and two sources regarding the boycott and it's impact. My biggest problem is doing a map of the medals because I cannot download the software to make the map since the computer I am using is not my own and I need an administrator to download it. If someone is willing to make a map for me, that would be great. By the way, I've highly modeled this list similar to the 2012 Summer Olympics medal table, which is the most recent Olympics medal table to be promoted to featured list status. I may not be able to do more editing until at least after September 23.

--Birdienest81talk 08:40, 8 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Thanks for your changes Birdienest81. This is looking much better. I went through and performed a copyedit, rescued some links and added a photo. Just a few more comments I see:

All photos should have alt text

Fixed: Added alt text to Kōji Gushiken's photo and slightly modified the alt for the LA Coliseum photo.

You usually don't need references in photo captions so long as the article is sourced and supports the statements in the caption

The only reason why there are references in many of the captions because according to ChrisTheDude, there should be references to any content in the captions that is not explicitly covered within the body of article (i.e. each individual gold medal accomplishments).

I would drop the last three links in the External Links section. The first link is really the only legitimate "External Link".

Fixed:Removed the last three links.

Thanks « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 14:35, 8 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Gonzo fan2007: - I've addressed your three comments from up above.

--Birdienest81talk 07:37, 9 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Birdienest81, I have no additional comments. Nice work! « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 17:46, 13 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Quick comments –

~~Medal table: "Four silvers medals (and no bronze) were awarded men's vault gymnastics competition." Should be "silver" with "in the" before "men's vault".~~
~~Note a: "The Soviet Union then broke that record in 1980, where it won 80 gold medals." "where" → "when" because the year is not a place.~~ Giants2008 (Talk) 22:24, 11 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Giants2008: - I've addressed both issue listed above and made the necessary corrections.

--Birdienest81talk 08:51, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comment

It looks like most of the issues have been cleared up, except for the first one: that the list does not mention the Soviet boycott. I understand from reading above that the reason behind the boycott is less straightforward than one might expect, and we have a whole article about it, but I'd still expect this list to have a sentence or two that the boycott existed and which countries did not participate as a result. --Pres N 14:23, 4 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

PresN, it looks like an IP removed the part that had been added about the boycott [2]. I agree and would withhold my support of closing this WP:FLRC until the boycott is explained in this article. The reasons that it occurred can be debated, its impact can be generalized, but it needs to be mentioned. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 17:51, 4 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Gonzo fan2007: I restored the statement regarding the Soviet-led boycott and its effect on the medal count. Some IP removed it because they felt that the statement did not support the claim that the boycott heavily favored the US. Well, clearly the USA was the primary beneficiary of the boycott. I agree that Romania also got some advatage, but US remained the primary party to gain from the boycott.

--Birdienest81talk 08:44, 11 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Honestly, at this point it is just the bare minimum. I still think there is more to add. You could link List of Olympic Games boycotts and add more context including about the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. I mean there is a whole article on the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott. This is why I said originally there should be a separate section about the boycott in this article. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 19:41, 12 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Update

@Gonzo fan2007:I've adding a map representing the medal results for the 1984 Summer Olympics colored by the highest achieved medal for each nation. It is similar to the 2012 Summer Olympics medal results map. As for further revisions such as the Russia boycott and effects, I am busy studying for an exam, and the earliest I can get back to this is on November 9.

--Birdienest81talk 10:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

After several months, the concerns have been addressed (with the exception of a small debate on how much to include about the boycott, which has stalled out for 2 months) and there is no consensus to delist. Closing. --Pres N 20:35, 16 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been kept, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FLC/ar, and leave the {{featured list candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through.

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.