America refuses to accept defeat in Olympic medal count

611 Comments

jeremyosborne81, on 08/25/2008, -15/+295If you assign points to the medals (Gold=3, Silver=2, and Bronze=1) China wins with a score of 223 to the USA's 220.

That's they way I think they should be counted. Fact of the matter is, it was a close battle, but we came up short.
Ilikebikes, on 08/25/2008, -20/+277What a dumb thing to argue about.
SomeHobo, on 08/25/2008, -4/+197I was always a bit confused as to whether it was total medals or total gold. Fortunately Wikipedia knows:

"The IOC medal tally chart is based on the number of gold medals for country. Where states are equal, the number of silver medals (and then bronze medals) are counted to determine rankings."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics

Apparently, the same rule applies to athletes - if you check the wiki page, Phelps is #1 all time medalist even though a Soviet gymnast has more total medals, but less gold.
Farmer77, on 08/24/2008, -27/+213China has the most golds and the United States has the most medals so both don't lose face regarding the medal count. It works out pretty good.
chiefbandit2200, on 08/25/2008, -21/+177Everybody knows Michael Phelps won the Olympics this year.
CobaltBlue, on 08/25/2008, -4/+133Seems like more media created ***** controversy to me.
skywake, on 08/25/2008, -7/+134I thought Usain Bolt was more impressive then Phelps. If there were 8 different ways to run 100 and 200m you can be sure that Bolt would have equalled Phelps' 8 medals.
KingGorilla, on 08/25/2008, -9/+117No one wins the olympics
colosis, on 08/25/2008, -41/+146gold decides the winner, china won.
teh_spazz, on 08/25/2008, -54/+152Who cares. We still kicked major ass.
ttforum, on 08/25/2008, -3/+97I'm sick of the rest of the world judging the USA by our media. Everybody knows our media does everything they can to sensationalize every possible thing and every different media outlet does it with different slants.... Even our social media, i.e. digg, is quite biased WRT what makes the front page.

Note to rest of the world from a US citizen: Myself and everybody I know is very impressed with China, their athletes and their incredible showing as the host country. Period.

That said, we are well aware that you love it when the US is knocked down a notch because you are tired of seeing the US dominate so many things in the world. Just keep in mind that we truly are a cross section of the entire world and that we share a common ancestory with you and every other country in the world, which is obvious when you simply take a look at the ethnicity of our athletes.
inactive, on 08/25/2008, -31/+124There is no tradition. Golds always decide the winner. China won. Period.
tomboy501, on 08/24/2008, -20/+107Exhibit #1: http://2008games.nytimes.com/olympics/medals.asp
nitemonkey, on 08/25/2008, -18/+92I have my own scoring system, where gold = 3 points, silver = 2 points, bronze = 1 point. In the even of a tie, the country with the most gold takes the higher spot. Here are my top 5 results:

1. China - 223 points

2. USA - 220 points

3. Russia - 139 points

4. Great Britain - 98 points

5. Australia - 89 points

I just noticed jeremyosborne81 above has the same system. I think we might be onto something.
themastersb, on 08/25/2008, -5/+71Everyone knows that only 1st place counts as winning.
inactive, on 08/25/2008, -5/+66FTA - "Whatever way they count, the fact remains that Beijing was the first time in 72 years that the US have not headed the gold-medal standings"

WRONG: the US were either 2nd or 3rd in 1992, 1988, 1976, 1972, 1960 and 1956

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Summer_Olympics_ ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Summer_Olympics_ ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Summer_Olympics_ ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics_ ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Summer_Olympics_ ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Summer_Olympics_ ...

Plus, 72 years ago (1936) Nazi Germany headed the medal count:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics_ ...

It appears as though they may have meant the US men's track team. Still very poorly written.
esilverski, on 08/25/2008, -2/+62The overall winner of the Olympics? It really doesn't work like that. I mean that's why there are individual events. If I had to choose a winner it would probably be NBC
dizzy113, on 08/25/2008, -9/+66Wait, the Olympics started already?
johnlandes, on 08/25/2008, -10/+63Fixed:
http://2008games.nytimes.com/olympics/medals.asp?s ...
MJDub, on 08/25/2008, -14/+64Michael Phelps did.
Havs, on 08/25/2008, -4/+54@OneLess

That's the Special Olympics you're thinking of.
cyclades, on 08/25/2008, -52/+97Gold is what counts. The IOC rules follow the tradition of the ancient Olympics where only the winner ever got anything in terms of a prize.

But no, our ***** tick country can't deal with that so we have to shout Number One no matter what and look totally moronic.
fugazied, on 08/25/2008, -11/+55Sorry, but a gold beats a bronze.
SIRBERUS, on 08/25/2008, -9/+52Does the USA win if you take away the cheated Chinese gymnastics medals?
T440, on 08/25/2008, -7/+48Jeremy's right, we've always ranked countries this way. In Athen, we ranked Russia over China because they had an overall higher medal count:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/2004standings/
This is not us trying to change the rules to stay #1, it's just the way we've always done it.
InfiniteNothing, on 08/25/2008, -1/+41Yup, that's what the Olympics need: at the end of the games, give out a big 4 ft medal to the country that "wins the Olympics"

Now that I think about it, the winner should be whatever country has the most golds per population or something like that. The more people you have, the greater your odds of having statistical outliers.
shitdrummer, on 08/25/2008, -6/+44So then you wouldn't mind giving me a $100 note if I gave you 2 x $10 notes back? After all, you'll have more notes than me!
morpheus69, on 08/25/2008, -15/+51The Chinese government takes kids away from their families at age three and trains them 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 14 years just to be at the top of the medal table...a "feat" that will be forgotten in less than a month. If that's the price you have to pay, I don't want to be the "winner". Who the ***** cares who "won" the Olympics anyway? All the media is spinning this as if it shows the "ascendancy" of China as a world power...give me a break! China has made great strides over the past 20 years and lifted 300 million people out of poverty, but there's still a billion of them living dirt-poor lives without clean water or basic services. Do you think they are cheering in the streets today?
thekronz, on 08/25/2008, -11/+47America! ***** yeah!
sixspeed, on 08/25/2008, -11/+46China won.

Give them their due. Their athletes did a great job under enormous pressure.
chillypacman, on 08/25/2008, -12/+46I asked a friend who is in China what people over there thought regarding US vs. China and she was like 'they don't really care, they're just happy China did so well'.

So in my eyes the Chinese won, irrespective of how many medals of what colour they have.
blairslovechild, on 08/25/2008, -1/+35That's a very dangerous path to go down. If we normalise medal results by population, I can assure that neither the USA nor China will be at the top of the medal table.
y2kery, on 08/25/2008, -20/+52Of course we have to keep in mind that China will probably lose its gold medals for women's gymnastics and the US gets those.
santaliqueur, on 08/25/2008, -3/+35Can someone point out the "refuses to accept defeat" part of this article? I smell more sensationalist ***** headline.
mcfragsalot, on 08/25/2008, -0/+31To be fair, this was the best showing for Team USA at a summer Olympics (in terms of total medal count). This was also the 3rd summer games in a row that the American team won exactly 36 gold medals. Therefore it can be said the success of the Chinese team did not come at the expense of the American team (I try to avoid the obvious trolls, but there is something about British trolling that sparks the normally dormant nationalistic side of me).

1960 : Total 71
1964 : Total 90
1968 : Total 107
1972 : Total 94
1976 : Total 94
1980 : US Boycot
1984 : USSR Boycot
1988 : Total 94
1992 : Total 108
1996 : Total 101
2000 : Total 91
2004 : Total 102
2008 : Total 110
RyeBrye, on 08/25/2008, -6/+37China will keep those medals because the government itself can fabricate whatever documents it needs to in order to "prove" the ages - and nobody has the balls to call them on their obvious *****.

Sad, but true.
marcus1060, on 08/25/2008, -15/+46I think going by gold makes the most sense.

It's only what we do in Canada, even though it makes us look worse then we could since we got few gold.

See: http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/
http://tsn.ca/
morpheus69, on 08/25/2008, -0/+31Yeah, they should have 100m skipping and 100m three-legged race.
beartamer, on 08/25/2008, -2/+31Yeah... And they eat children that refuse to be Olympic champions...
OneLess, on 08/25/2008, -3/+31Not the triumph, but the struggle. I honestly don't give a ***** who has more gold medals or total medals, I'm interested in watching the competition and cheering on my nation's athletes no matter what the medal count is. These stupid nationalistic pissing contests (which the author of the article is essentially jumping right into) are contrary to the spirit of the games. Good for China for getting a bunch of gold this Olympiad, congrats to the US for leading the total medal count. Hell, kudos to Russia for tying for 2nd in silvers. When will the nations of the world stop acting like little bratty children every 2 years?
Yookji, on 08/25/2008, -19/+47And our gymnastics team didn't cheat either!
zedtech78, on 08/25/2008, -5/+32"If you're not first, you're last."
0uch, on 08/25/2008, -59/+85I always just thought that who ever ended out with the most "overall" medals won the "medal count"???
mrb4b00, on 08/25/2008, -17/+43Train harder for London and stop complaining.
Gizza, on 08/25/2008, -5/+31Funny that you still put USA on top even though your chart clearly indicates they are second.

But I agree that you should either count gold medals, or give each medal a score like this. It makes no sense whatsoever to just count the total medals, otherwise teams that come 3rd all the time could be considered the best even if they never win anything.
RyeBrye, on 08/25/2008, -2/+27To dive into our pools performing difficult tricks with minimal splashes?
jeremyosborne81, on 08/25/2008, -31/+55Traditionally the U.S. has ALWAYS kept track of TOTAL number as being the DEFINITIVE count.
LeviTheSmith, on 08/25/2008, -10/+33But that means a crap team who won the most Bronze 'wins'. Rather than the team with the most Gold Medals.
DaFunk, on 08/25/2008, -2/+24When I heard the story about the Chinese synchronized swimmer who asked her coach for a weekend off because she hadn't seen her family in 12 years, it put the medal count into a different perspective. Sure, it would have been nice for the US to "win" the gold medal count, but I'm glad the US isn't in the business of destroying lives and families in order to do so.
SIRBERUS, on 08/25/2008, -4/+25@Phil... Aside from the government documents listing her birthday online... how about the fact that the Chinese claimed she was 13 vocally and publicly only 9 months ago at a world championship.

They either lied then or are lying now. Either way it warrants a thorough investigation... one I do not see happening.

She can either be a (now) 14 year old prodigy, or a 16 year old gold medalist for a country with no integrity.
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