Which is used to rank the Olympic Games? ?

Question

I've visited lots of websites around the word only to find the US is the only country that makes the rank by total medals instead of gold medals. Was this very common in the past? And is this OK?

Answer 1

i believe US goes back and forth on this issue, in 64 US decided to count by total and not gold in order to beat USSR. if they are leading in gold and lacking in total, i believe they would favor the international ranking, just whatever works to keep them on top.

Answer 2

You're absolutely correct in observing that the USA is the only country to count total medals instead of gold then silver to arrive at the rankings.

Obviously, it should be gold, silver etc rather than total medals, so no, it's not OK. Gold then silver is the way the IOC does it and even Yahoo7 in Australia counts it that way. It's only the Yahoo! US site that panders to the Americans by letting them think that they're winning the medal count when they're actually miles behind.

The question looks like being academic before long - China has nearly caught up even in overall medals - only 5 behind ATM!