Pro-Europeans on Facebook have been busy posting the number of medals Europe won at the London Olympics (although some of them now, interestingly, make a distinction between the Eurozone’s and the EU’s medals). In that context, a throwaway comment in this morning’s Observer caught my eye. In helping team US win the 4 x 100 metres sprint, Carmelita Jeter took ‘East Germany off the record books for ever.’ Intrigued, I looked up the current Olympic athletics records and discovered that the old, divided Europe has all but disappeared from the books (three records remain for the GDR, one for the old Romania). The old Soviet Union has just one outstanding record.
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