Letters

The women's Olympics

When Chairman Mao Zedong said, "women hold up half the sky", no one imagined how China would eventually overstate that in international sport.

Nowhere has the opportunity for women to lead a country in global competitions been more dramatically evident than in the standings of the United States and China at the London 2012 Olympics - the highest and second highest winners of medals. In both cases women accounted for a disproportionately high share of their country's medals, even more so for the US.