Sorry, America: China's leading the real Olympic medal count
Since when are silver and bronze worth as much as gold? Come on, United States.
sports.yahoo.com
In an unexplained yet (apparently) nationally accepted counting method, Americans tally the standings not by what country wins the most golds, but what country wins the most total medals....
That means China’s current tally of 32 golds, 21 silvers and 16 bronzes (69 total) is somehow not as good as the United States’ 25 golds, 29 silvers and 21 bronzes (75 total). Try telling China’s seven extra gold medalists that their victories didn't matter.
What in the name of participation trophies is going on here?
The rest of the world favors gold over everything. That’s how the International Olympic Committee tallies it. Same with the medal standing on the Toyko 2020 website. It’s good enough for media companies all over the world, just not in the U.S. apparently.
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Not sure how it used to be presented to the US public but I do remember how the media tried to twist Michael Johnson into the world's fastest man even though he wasn't a 100m threat at all because we didn't have the 100m champion then.
As far as this I don't think you can just claim the most golds means you did better or you could get some ridiculous results though the most golds in the games is a bragging point itself. I think maybe saying a gold is worth 3 points, a silver 2 points and a bronze 1 point would be a good way of comparing results.
At the time of this article that would have China at 154 and the US at 154 also.