Don't you think Yahoo's olympic medal count misleading?

Question

I think it is pathetic to say "overall" medal count only so that the USA can be the no.1 in rank when it's been a tradition, and everybody knows, that the olympic ranking is based on the number of gold first then silver and then bronze medal counts.

Answer 1

i agree

i think

30 gold is better than 60 bronze

Answer 2

no in america its the more the better no matter what color they are most websites go by overall any way

Answer 3

yeh it bloody confuses me, I go on google to see who the top three are.

Answer 4

I simply see Yahoo US counts by number of total medals, whereas Yahoos of other countries count by number of gold then silver & then bronze.

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/meda...

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/olympics/2...

http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/jeux-olympiqu...

http://de.eurosport.yahoo.com/olympische...

http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/olimpiadi/...

Answer 5

Quite confusing actually... Sometimes the U.S rank 1st because of medal tally and sometimes they rank 1st because of gold tally...

Answer 6

1/ USA could be using the total count since stone age, but it doesn't mean it is a good system. USA had been slaving blacks and other less fortunate for many many years too. they later realized their mistake and is now the forefront of freedom fighting. so this argument is silly.

2/ I agree that 30 gold and 30 silver is better than 31 gold but same can be said for 59 gold is better than 30 gold and 30 silver. In the case of 2008 olympics, the case is more like the 2nd example. we could have a system build up to account for silver and bronze. like 1 gold =5 silver =10 copper.

3/ using the "30 gold and 30 silver is better than 31 gold argument" to say that 30 gold and 30 silver is better than 59 gold is kind of silly to me. and to the rest of the world.

4/ Of course we can leave USA alone with their love of many things including not using the metric system, but there is still a proper conversion like 1 mile =1.609344 kilometers. USA can pretend all they like that 6 silver is better than 5 gold but in Olympics we need some sort of standard or system, or some coversion formula like miles to km.

5/ lastly if Michael Phelps got 8 bronze he will still be a nobody, if he got 8 silver he will be the most symphatized person in the world instead of being arguably the best olympian in the world.

Answer 7

30 gold is better than 60 bronze

29 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze is WAY better than 30 gold, 0 silver and 0 bronze.

who do you think has the better athletes out of those 2.

Americas cares about overall performance, other country only care about the gold.  Both are acceptable.

Answer 8

50 gold, 50 silver, 50 bronze is better than 51 gold and 0 silver and 0 bronze to me.

but whatever. Obviously "everyone" doesn't' think like you, even yahoo, so your "everyone" statement is wrong.

America has it's own traditions, if you can't accept that, then too bad, be a petty foreigner then.

Answer 9

You know if we had won more Gold but less medals we would use the MOST GOLD tally.  We have to get used to being the Nation of the 20th Century...21st is going to be China's!

Answer 10

No, actually the US has ALWAYS gone by the overall medal count. Even when WE were leading in Gold medals

Stop trying to make something out of nothing.

Answer 11

You should be happy.

If that "overall" medal count still do not put USA in no.1 rank, they will count the ACTUAL medal count. They will count 2 for duet competitions, 4 for 4x relay competions, and all the medals won in the team competitions. That way, if they won bronze in baseball they will be WAY higher in rank than 1 gold in weightlifting.

That's how some Americans think the way should be.

Answer 12

"29 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze is WAY better than 30 gold, 0 silver and 0 bronze.

who do you think has the better athletes out of those 2."

Here's what I think.

30 gold from a delegation of 30 has WAY better athetes than a delegation of 89 with 29 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze.

Answer 13

go to nbc.com and find it then.  Everyone knows that yahoo has problems.

Answer 14

not this lame question again.

Answer 15

Nobody cares how you count the medals, if you don't like the fact the yahoo cares about silver and bronze athletes, move to a site that shuns all the athletics but gold medalists.

I think it's pathetic to keep bringing this up ever 10th question, move on son.

Answer 16

I agree ... silver and bronze medals certainly don't have quite the same value as gold medals, so it IS misleading to group them all together as a "total".

Though China has got so many gold medals now that even the Chinese are starting to get sick of it ==

Answer 17

I don't know, what I do know is that I HATE yahoo for spoiling every single gymnastics event for me before it even aired here!

Answer 18

I agree. It makes America look like bad sports. Its great you have the most medals, but golds are the winners.

Answer 19

Same answer I give to every question referring to this:

We (Americans) Have always counted are medals by total.

It's our thing. Just because everyone else uses the Metric system, It doesn't mean we have to. And we don't!

Until recently the world has counted medals by total.

I believe it's unfair when you count by Gold because the other athletes that tried so hard for silver and Bronze aren't making a difference.

Answer 20

If silver and bronze don't count for anything, then why bother awarding them?

We have tracked medal counts by total medals for as far back as I can remember watching Olympics......1976.......

Answer 21

The International Olympic Committee, organizer of the Olympic games, ranks countries by GOLD medals won, then silver and then bronze.

That is the official medal count, despite what US media can say about it, just have a look at the official Olympic statistics for past and present olympics.

Win or lose, you should use the same rules.

Answer 22

That's a simple question!

Usa delegation: 1500 athletes

Some small countries (Example:only 50 athletes in Beijing) can dispute the first place on Rank Medals if the 50 athletes win the gold medal!

After all, there isn't any athlete in Beijing, that go there wanting to win Silver or Bronze medal. Everyone wants the Gold because is for it that athletes train all their lifes. Gold medal is the final objective for all athletes... Gold medal that real counts!

Michael Phelps wouldn't be nearly as impressive if he were going for 8 bronzes.

Obviously, with 1500 athletes usa will have more medals at the final of Olympics, but remember: quantity is not QUALITY!

Usa have to accept, that IS NOT MORE THE NUMBER ONE IN OLYMPIC WORLD!