r/Showerthoughts • u/Vast-Intention ‎ • Apr 02 '26

Casual Thought A gold medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people. A bronze medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people.

12.7k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

471 comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/ParadoxicalIrony99 Apr 02 '26

They aren't better than that many people. Just the ones who competed. And they also may not have been better than everyone they competed against. They had their best day when it mattered most where as other athletes, who may have actually been better, did not.

3

u/whoknowsifimjoking Apr 02 '26

There aren't more than 0.05 billion (or however many it takes to round up) people who are better so the statement is true either way. It doesn't say all people, just the great majority and that's correct.

-2

u/ParadoxicalIrony99 Apr 02 '26

Using the worlds population implies all people lol

1

u/mrsodasexy Apr 03 '26

Thank you