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There has been some discussion about how to determine which country “won” the Olympics. Most of the world just goes by the total Gold medal count which China has an insurmountable lead right now. The United States however, is the one country that counts how it does in each Olympics with total medals. Which one of these methods is correct? Its hard to say but lets take a closer look. There are three medals for each event, representing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and are awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze accordingly. Achieving any of these medals is a great feat in itself as it means you are one of the top three in the sport in the world. By this reasoning all three medals should be counted and the total medal count is the best way to go. |
However, they should not be counted as the same. I don’t think anyone could argue that a Bronze medal is somehow equal to a Gold medal, that notion is ridiculous. The fact is that if you win a Bronze medal, you are the 3rd best in the world, but you are not “The Man”. However, winning the gold medal means that you are indeed “the man”. I bet if Michael Phelps had won 8 silver medals and not 8 golds, there wouldn’t been nearly as commotion about him as there is now. And besides everyone competes to be the best in the world, not the 2nd or 3rd best in the world. People cheer “we’re #1″ all the time but hardly anyone cheers “we’re #2″ or “we’re #3″, so a Bronze medal or a Silver medal should not count as much as a gold medal.
But then, how do you rank the countries fairly by counting all the medals and making Golds more important? The answer is very simple. To determine which country “wins” the Olympics, determine it by the number of points they have instead of a medal count. In this system make a Gold medal 3 points, a silver medal 2 points, and a bronze 1 point. I think most will agree that this is a fair assessment as one Gold medal is now worth 3 times one bronze medal. I don’t think this is unfair to bronze medals either as I think many athletes with 3 bronze medals would gladly have won a Gold instead of three bronzes. So by this count, the USA vs. China score is.
USA: 26 Golds * 3+26 silver*2+27 Bronze *1=157 total points
China: 43 Golds *3 + 14 silver *2 + 19 bronze *1 = 176 total points
China is still in the lead by a decent margin but its not an insurmountable difference like it would be if we only counted golds. Anyone else think this is a good system?
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3 users responded in this post
Great points… I would go with total medal count, but as you say, METAL count seems to be the deciding factor in most people’s minds.
good blog, keep up the good work.
Bobby McGill
http://idlewordship.com
I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but “most of the world” uses the correct method of determining who “wins” the Olympics. That method is the same method that the IOC uses to determine who “won” a particular Olympic games. Gold medals are counted first, then silver and then bronze. I know it sucks because you have to fact the truth: the US came up short this year. Plain and simple.
I think the only fair way to calculate the winner of the olypmic games is to do what he said, give 3 points for a gold, 2 points for a silver and 1 point for a bronze. this way it’s overall best and not just the most golds or most medals.
as it turned out, the following is how the points would have been figured out based on the point system:
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Pts
——– —— ——– ——– ———–
USA 36 38 36 220
China 51 21 28 223
And thus, China would win by 3 points based on the point system. Very very Close and I think a fair system to determine the winner of the olympics.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it
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