Why does US media want to make us believe that the Americans are at the top of the medal count?

Question

It is International Olympic Committee policy to rank the medal table according to the number of gold medals won. Why does US media mislead people placing the US above China on the medal count when clearly China (and by IOC standards) is way ahead?

Answer 1

Those body that use accumulative count are not official. You cannot call it olympic medal count or even "medal count" because worldwide acceptance of "medal count" meaning is always Gold medal go first. Even my local highschool use the official medal count. But you can call it yahoo count or cnn count. Shame on us. now how are we going to explain when the olympic is over and china won the offical olympic medal count.  

Answer 2

Easy question with easy answer. They do this because they want us to be more interested in the Olympics. Why not find a way to put us on top? If it were the other way around, us having fewer medals but more gold you can be sure that our media would base it on most gold won. I'm sure in the Chinese media they show only gold count and don't even show a total medal count. You are gonna spin it which ever way works for your particular country.  

Answer 3

we've been ranking countries by total medals won for many decades, this is nothing new. it's called a medal count, not a gold medal count. ranking countries solely by gold medals would be suggesting silver and bronze don't matter. the US is currently leading the medal count with China 2nd. sorry haters, but that's the way it is, so get over it

Answer 4

The us media misleads us about many things. They are trying to insight interest by not being very fourth coming.

Answer 5

Know it all (^above^) apparently knows nothing at all, because the International Olympic Committee has been ranking countries by Gold Medals for decades, not Total Medal Count. In fact they don't even have a Total Medal Count, they only list Gold Medals, Silver Medals, and Bronze Medals, they do not list a Total Medals. The way it works is first they look at the Gold Medal count and if more than 1 country is tied they will look at the Silver Medal count, if they are tied still they move on to Bronze medal count, if after that they are still tied then they will both be ranked the same. Counting it by total medals means that Bronze counts just as much as Gold and a country with 76 Bronze medals would rank over a country with 75 Gold medals, this would also make it unfair for a country with fewer athletes, for example if team U.S.A bring in 700 athletes but only achieve 3 Silver Medals and 23 Bronze would they really be the better team over a country lets say Thailand if Thailand had only 22 athletes but winning 21 Gold medals and 1 Silver? And to answer the question as to why the U.S would mislead us? It's because many Americans are sore losers like Mr. Know it all and to everybody else that thinks the U.S is not misleading us then why did they not even announce/show the medal count when China was leading in the "Total Medal Count" like three or four days ago? I watched NBC and go online to keep updated on the medal counts everyday, and when I saw online that China for once surpassed U.S.A in the total medal count I was interested to see it on NBC news, I stayed up till 6-7 in the morning hoping to see that update, but they never showed it. Then the next day when the U.S got back on top of the Total Medal Count sure enough an update was given. Anybody wanna be a sore loser and try to justify that?

Links provided below shows the U.S ranking above Russia in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo even though they have less medals overall, also if you look at the bottom of the page on the 2nd link provided, it will tell you the rules on how they rank a country, then on the last link I provided it explains it in more detail. Also every other country ranks medals this way, only America ranks it by total.

Answer 6

The US isn't misleading people.

The US actually does have the most medals, but China is winning in the gold department.

No, it's not because we're "brainwashing" or because 'we can't face it".

It's because it's the medal count, not who's winning.

And enough with the whole 'The US likes to think they're better than everyone else.'

If you don't know a thing about the US, then don't act like you do.

Answer 7

Because it's counted by total medals.  US is leading by total medals with 72.  It's not about who has the most golds.  ALL medals count.

Answer 8

Well because they actually are.  Overall the U.S. leads the medal count by 5 (72 - 67).  However, they're being crushed by China in the Gold medal department.  China leads that department 17 (39 - 22).

Answer 9

Because the US is pig headed.

I'm purly American and I can say that.

That's pretty bad.

The US likes to think they are always on top, always in control, and when we aren't, we change things to make it look like we know what we are doing.

I'm not saying that all PEOPLE do that, but big coorperations, the media, and the government do that.

Answer 10

because they are full of themselves and think they are better than everyone

Answer 11

The International Olympic Committee does NOT keep track of this. I don't know where you get this? However, the US media is the only national media that makes such a big deal out of it. Olympic athletes actually consider it it overrated.

Answer 12

Are they really doing that. They are really lame  

Answer 13

In  actual medals the US has more but China has more gold medels.

Answer 14

because everyone else counts total medals and u.s.a. has won the most.its not misleading,we have won more,the media lies about alot more important things than this.

Answer 15

steph, you really think we can make up about 20 or so gold medals in the coming days?  I'd really like to see your plan.

Answer 16

We are ahead of China in the total medal count. We are winning 72-67. They are only ahead in the gold medal count. But we can easily make that up. They aren't misleading us on the count.

Answer 17

propoganda & nationalism at its finest  

Answer 18

At least the US does not cheat to get a medal. I am so disgusted when I watch the women's gymnastics, all they do is cheat. If you happen to be watching last night you would know what I am talking about. But all in all, stop bashing your own country. Support every athlete, people cheat their way to the gold and our athletes are out there trying their best winning what they deserve..  

Answer 19

I'm not surprise that the US does that.  

Answer 20

no they're not the US is really above china in medal count (not gold medal count) but medal count we have 72 they have 67 your confused

Answer 21

it's called brainwashing, they want u to think ur country is better than it is...

Answer 22

we are at top of the total medal count. we have less gold medals and we understand that. if china wins china wins. i sure those gold medals are going to feed the vast number of starving people in their country.

and the girl above me can drive her car off a bridge

Answer 23

Because most Americans want to know that we are winning regardless of the medal.  I was watching FOX news and they always say that China is winning Gold count, but we have won more medals.

Answer 24

we have always gone by medal count so this is nothing new.im 37 yrs of age and its always been the same.i think it should be by medal count and not gold anyways.just because your awarded gold from biased judging does that make you the leader?