What's the official Olympics order?

Question

Ok.. on nbcOlympics.com the medal chart (the one that tells you what nation has how many medals) orders the nation by the TOTAL number of medals a nation has. But on Google, the medal chart orders the nations by the number of GOLD medals.

(for example, USA has 41 total medals right now but China (with 35 total medals) is #1 on the chart because it has more gold medals than USA)

So.. in the end, how are the nations ordered?? by the total number or by the number of gold medals (then silver, then bronze)?

Answer 1

Typically I see it go by total number of medals, not only on NBC but also in local papers, here on Yahoo, and elsewhere. It's the medal count, not the gold medal count. This is the way I've been seeing things since 1984 (the first Olympics I actually remember seeing even though it was the third games to occur in my lifetime). The gold medal count only becomes important when there is a tie for total number of medals.

Answer 2

wat??????

Answer 3

There is no Olympics-sponsored "medal race." No one wins anything by having the most medals.

Therefore, how people group them is all subjective. The medal count is about national pride. As you have seen, some rank by number of medals altogether, others rank by number of Gold, Silver, Bronze. However, there is no "official" ranking.

If it makes you feel any better though, the official Beijing 2008 Olympics website ranks them according to number of Gold.