Is Yahoo distorting the facts of who is winning the Olympics?

Question

It is great to see how competitive the U.S. is during these Olympics. Yahoo has shown that the U.S. has 48 medals over with the next best Country being China at 43. Unfortunately, digging a little deeper and clicking on the medal count link, it shows China has 27 gold medals, almost twice as much as the U.S. at 15. Do you think this was intentional to report it this way on Yahoo's front page?

Answer 1

Gee that is strange that they would be showing it that way in the US.

Here in Australia on Yahoo and also on the telly they are displaying the medal count with China first and USA second as China has more gold.

It's funny that they would do that.  I'm thinking that they must only be doing that in the US.

I don't really think the total tally matters that much it's more the individual achievements of each athlete.  Or maybe, just maybe that is what we say here in Australia as we are never up the top of the Medal Tally.  Hmmm that would make sense!  Hahaha. The US can pretend they are on top and we can pretend the total count is not important.  :-)

Answer 2

no one country "wins" the olympics. everybody who came in first wins, then second and third of course

Answer 3

In the US you may always list the medal count in order of total medals won because that shows the US to advantage, but believe me, the rest of the world counts the gold medals first, then the silver.

The Yahoo7 site (in Australia) and the official Olympic site (controlled by the IOC, not China) both show the list in gold medal order and that's as it should be. On Yahoo7, Australia with 22 medals in total, is shown at 7th position and Germany with only 16, is 3rd and no-one in Oz is complaining because they have more golds than we do and they deserve to be 3rd.

So, to answer your specific question, the Yahoo US site is distorted if it really does show the US as being in front..

Answer 4

No, on yahoos page, it is reported as a total medal count.  

Answer 5

They go by total medal count, not by how many gold medals are won.

The total medal count is more significant because that's the actual number of individuals and teams who have won medals -- meaning whoever has the most medals has been the most dominant country overall in the Olympics.

Answer 6

No, most places usually list the MEDAL COUNT, not the gold medal count.  It's the total number of medals first. Then if there's a tie for total number it's who has the most gold. This is how I've been seeing it since the 1984 LA games when I was 9. Before there was a Yahoo or Google.

Answer 7

pretty sure in australia its always gone number of gold then total

Answer 8

Yes, it seems Yahoo has been intentionally distorting the OIympic medal count results in just this way throughout the past century.  You're the first one to catch this disturbing falsehood.

Answer 9

i wrote a quesion similar to this,but not just about yahoo.

websites and news from other countries report china to be in first place because they have a higher number of gold medals.but the american media reports the usa to be winning because they have the most overall medals.seems to me like the USA has implemented their own way of viewing the standings so they can be first