Which country officially won the Olympics?

Question

I've seen it two ways: China for having the most gold medals, and the USA for having the most total medals. So, what's the official word?

Answer 1

There's no definite answer because too many things to consider, but rank by total medals is definitely not it. That's like saying a bronze = gold. A country that wins 3 gold shouldn't be ranked the same as a country that wins 3 bronze.

If anything, it should ranked by total points if Gold=3, Silver=2, Bronze=1

Answer 2

You cannot win the Olympics, sorry.

Answer 3

If you are going to count, then perhaps it should be done per capita. However, it isn't about who wins the most, it's about building bonds and relationships through sport.

Answer 4

America wins cuz of the more metals..but most of the time they dont look at it like which country won all together they look at it by each individual event.

Answer 5

There's no official winner of the Olympics.  There are individual events which are won by individual athletes or teams of athletes.

Answer 6

CHINA PR tops the medals tally as they won more gold medals than the UNITED STATES, even though the UNITED STATES have won more medals than CHINA PR.  

Answer 7

no official winner but for people who like to look at medal count, china "won" non usa medal count, usa "won" their own medal count

Answer 8

There isn't and never has been an official winner of the Olympic Games.

The official IOC tally is how many GOLD medals are won, but that doesn't mean a country has won the Olympics.

The first answer explains it well.

Answer 9

We've seen this question countless times mostly from America bashers.  There is no correct answer.  You can choose to interpret the data anyway that you please.  My preference is to award 3 points for a gold, 2 for a silver, and 1 for a bronze.  I think it is a fair way to weigh each medals worth.  Others will surely disagree and go strictly by either gold medals or total medals.  It looks like China would have 3 more points than the US if you use my system.  

Answer 10

i think there is no such winner on that event...ALL OF US ARE WINNERS! UNITY is the right word...

Answer 11

those who said that america won are ******* ignorant, 1 silver and 1 bronze is equal to 1 gold, you do the math..........china won, they also have more gold medals

Answer 12

There is no such thing as an official 'olympic winner'. In my entire life I have never heard of such a thing. It's spelled out very clearly in the IOC charter:

http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_rep...

(page 104, section 58, 'Roll of Honour') "The IOC and the OCOG shall not draw up any global ranking per country. A roll of honour bearing the names of medal winners and those awarded diplomas in each event shall be established by the OCOG and the names of the medal winners shall be featured prominently and be on permanent display in the main stadium."

All we have is arbitrary stats. That's really all there is to it. There is no 'winner' or 'loser'.

Need more from the horses mouth?

“If you read the Olympic charter, we actually see the Games as between athletes, not countries,” Giselle Davies, an I.O.C. spokeswoman, said in an interview Monday.

Here's more:

The I.O.C. does compile and present on its Web site a final medal table with a disclaimer at the bottom: “The I.O.C. does not recognize global ranking per country; the medal tallies are displayed for information only,” it reads...

Hope this helps!

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EDIT: No country gets 'first place' either. That would entail "ranking of countries" which is , as I have shown, expressly prohibited in the IOC charter.

Face it.. there is no such thing as winning, or coming in first overall at the Olympics. If their, was shouldn't I be able to find an article from a credible news source claiming American won the Olympics the past 3 times? I never heard, or read anything like that. The IOC does not endorse any official way to do this because the Olympics is not intended to be an overall competition any country 'wins'.

Back in the Ancient games ONE PERSON (who did the best in all the various games) was crowned overall Olympic Champion. But in the modern games there is no such thing as winning the Olympics. No country has ever 'won the Olympics' or ever 'Come in first' in the history of the games.

China got the most golds and that is impressive. But they didn't 'win the games' no one does. USA got the most medals. They didn't win either... USA got the most golds and the most medals the past 3 Olympics... but they didn't ever 'Win the Olympics' then either. There is no such thing.

Micheal Phelps got the most golds in swimming... Yet I don't hear him claiming that he 'won swimming'. I can't see why people don't understand this. The IOC makes it VERY clear time and time again that their is no such thing as 'winning the Olympics'. They do NOT endorse a final 'ranking' as I have shown straight from the IOC site. It didn't even take long to find this information.

I really thought this was common knowledge.... I've never heard of anything so silly.

Answer 13

I'd say China did the best, being champions in 51 events. All the participating countries are winners as they got to take part in this world events and they all gained so much from it.