Olympic medal tally...

Posted Aug 16, 2008 12:03am by personman

Joined: Mar 16th, 2008
Posts: 19

So, what determines the "winner" of the Olympics? As I look at the medal count right now (8-15, 11:59pm), China has nearly twice as many gold medals as the US, but the US leads in overall medal count. Obviously, a gold is worth more than a bronze, right?

Not that I really care (I mean, what significance could this possibly have on anything), but hey, I'm bored and slightly obsessive. Just curious, I guess. Anyone know the answer to this (by the way, even though the US is far behind in GOLD medals, they are listed AHEAD of China in overall standings).

just call it anything

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Danmairen

Joined: May 15th, 2008
Posts: 1,388

Stating the obvious,,,

Posted by: Danmairen on Aug 16, 2008 1:45am

The medal table is really not that important,, the olympic ideal is participation and focus on the individual, not so much which country takes how many medals,, I guess only the top 2-3 countries care about that (partly since no more than 2-3 countries have the chance). Obviously in a country like China the medal count is a way to get recognized but people who are aware of the price Chinese athletes pay might not be so easily impressed. Gold medals always count the highest, in any medal table I've seen Gold is always worth more than x siler or bronze, if total medal counts are made its likely made by someone who's not doing as well goldwise as they hoped.

Medal table example

Country Gold Silver Bronze
1. China 1 0 0
2. USA 0 9 12

(Brian starts singing)
Stewie : Hey, who sings that song?
Brian: James Taylor.
Stewie: Let's keep it that way.

Joined: Sep 6th, 2007
Posts: 1,381

Re: Olympic medal tally...

Posted by: V on Aug 16, 2008 9:21am

I'm impressed by how many medals some relatively small countries have gotten (so far):

Australia has 20
S. Korea has 18

The US currently leads in total medals (46), while China is in 2nd place for total medals (41). If we look only at gold, then China leads the US 26-14.

I wonder if the IOC will do anything if those Chinese gymnasts ultimately prove to be under the minimum age? When individuals cheat by doping, that's bad (but only negative towards the individual), but if it were to be shown that a country aided athletes to cheat with false documents....WOW!

At least the air seems to finally be getting a little better.

Cheers,

Danmairen

Joined: May 15th, 2008
Posts: 1,388

Go

Posted by: Danmairen on Aug 16, 2008 10:29am

Well,, regarding the women gymnasts,, it wasn't really a secret that the girls got medicine that prohibited body growth (and probably puberty) on the eastern european teams back in the good old days. Seeing the "16 year old" girls from the Chinese team,, well,, lets just say that most people would probably venture a guess of 8 or 9. On the other hand hard physical training is known to delay puberty also,,, not sure what to believe. Can't deny they are pretty darn good though.

(Brian starts singing)
Stewie : Hey, who sings that song?
Brian: James Taylor.
Stewie: Let's keep it that way.

Ironfrost

Joined: Apr 22nd, 2006
Posts: 122

Re: Stating the obvious,,,

Posted by: Ironfrost on Aug 16, 2008 3:18pm

Danmairen wrote:

I guess only the top 2-3 countries care about that (partly since no more than 2-3 countries have the chance).

Not really - GB hasn't got much (any) chance of coming top, but everyone still cares about what position we take in the medal table, and what countries are in front of / behind us. I guess it's the same for other countries too.

As for medal tables, most of them rank by gold medals first, including the one on the IOC site, so China is way out in front. Silvers only count when two teams have the same number of golds, and bronzes only count when they have the same number of silvers as well.

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