The Summer Olympics just keep getting bigger. There are 302 gold medals up for grabs in Beijing. That’s a gold medal every 47 minutes for the sixteen-day span of the games. Doesn’t sound so special when it’s put that way, does it? But is that BMX gold medal really as significant as the historic one Michael Phelps won last night? No, and there are good reasons why. Follow the jump for an in-depth analysis of the most valuable gold medals and the sports that don’t even deserve to be in the Olympics.

The German magazine Stern has a great online gallery of 17 Olympians and the tattoos they are sporting for Beijing on various body parts. Among them is uber-hottie flatwater canoeist Tomasz Wylenzek (right), who won a gold for Germany in 2004. Check out the tattoo gallery.