Why does Yahoo give more importance to the overall medal count instead of the gold medals won?

Question

Isn't it true that the official Olympic count is based on the gold totals? Will yahoo change its ranking if the U.S. have more gold medals than China?

Answer 1

Thank you! Finally, someone who has also recognized this error.

I have a feeling that they want to put US in front no matter what. It doesn't make sense that gold counts as much as bronze. If a country won 50 bronze medals only, then they win? It makes no sense.

Chinese TV shows the rankings by gold medals. Is it quality or quantity? I'm confused too but I have a feeling it's about quality. Yahoo's just ranking them so that US leads.

Answer 2

Only in America do we have a Live label on non Live coverage of the Olympics, where we have limited and edited coverage of the Olympics, where we have commercials showing Olympic athletes eating chicken sandwiches and drinking coke, and only in America does 51 Bronze medals worth more than 50 Gold medals (Even though they advertise their chicken sandwiches with the quote saying "why settle for silver when you can get gold").

Answer 3

it will be counted gold, silver then bronze.. not the overall total. yahoo and most us sites count the total so the us ranks first.... they might change it after track and field events.

Answer 4

i heard that most of the countries and the official olympics does count based on the gold medals.

I don't know why america is using the total amount.

is it because they think all medals are important?

or is it because they just want to be in the top?

it is a question that you have to decide by your self..

Answer 5

If it were based only on gold medals they wouldn't award bronze and silver medals, they count too. And by Yahoo showing all the medals you can see clearly who has the most gold by doing so. They are posting all the medals.

Answer 6

yeah. I lost my respect for Yahoo! in this case.. US media give US people a bad reputation outside US soil.  

Answer 7

If USA had the most gold,  they'd rank by gold medals.

Answer 8

2points

Answer 9

Does it matter? Is there a rule somewhere on how to show the rankings?

Answer 10

I think there should be a points system by which they keep score.    Maybe 6 points for a gold, 5 for a silver, and 4 for a bronze.   (I avoid using 1,2,3 because I don't think a gold should count 3 times as much as a bronze, 1.5 times as much is better)

Answer 11

First, it's important to establish the OFFICIAL rule in medal ranking:

The International Olympic Committee ranks by gold medal totals, and if there is a tie in gold, they then rank by silver medal, and if there is a tie in both gold and silver, they rank by the bronze.

But with that being said, some US news sources rank by overall medals, because most of us (Americans) would be more interested with the Olympics if we appeared to be atop the medal board. It's really a matter of business.

In truth, the US is in second place so far in these games - which I don't think would sit nicely with most Americans, especially since China (who is in first place) is regarded by most Americans as a hostile undemocratic nation that is competing unfairly with organized state sports school and underaged athletes.

However, if for some reason China falls back on gold medals but rises to have more overall medals, while the US rises to have more gold medals, but fall behind in overall medals, I would bet my life that most US news sources would start to rank by total gold medals.

One more thing - if you notice some of the news sources, like the New York Times or Yahoo!, they never state in the ranking that the US is #1 in the medal ranking. All they do is put the US on top of the medal ranking. For example:

USA, 19 21 25 65

China. 35 13 13 61

But if you go to Canada's cbc.ca or Britain's bbc.com, you would notice that they would actually have a column that ranks each country, (ie):

1. China 35 13 13 61

2. USA 19 21 25 65

The reason the US news source do this is so they cannot be accused of providing false information while making it appear that the US is on top of the medal standings. In most US news sources, we are certainly on top of the medal standings; however, they are by no means saying that we're #1 at the moment.

So why do some web sites rank differently, i.e. our American news sources - because we as Americans want to believe that we are number one.

PS - on Yahoo France , Yahoo Germany, (and all other Yahoo sites international), Yahoo actually ranks by gold medals and not by total medal counts.

Answer 12

Because it is what makes sense.  People like to put more emphasis on the gold because it is the one medal that has the highest glory however in counting medals no one medal should be considered higher than the other.  If Egypt had 35 bronze medals but only a few golds, do they not deserve the top medal count just because they are bronze? I do not think so.  It is a unjustified for organizations to count simply by how many gold medals when there are many other medals that mean just as much.  As any Olympian, gold is awesome and silver is great but any medal is one more medal that they have they you dont.  

Answer 13

correct count:

gold medal - 3 pts

silver - 2 pts

bronze - 1 pts

and you will see who is the best ;)

Answer 14

Yes its true. The official Olympic count is based on Gold, then Silver, then Bronze, in the spirit of fairness to countries who couldn't afford enough athletes to compete in the Olympics.

Checkout the Official Olympics Website: http://www.olympics.org

Athens 2004

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/tab...

Sydney 2000

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/ind...

Atlanta 1996

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/ind...

And so on and so on. Click under the right column, "OLYMPIC RESULTS" - "Medals by Country".

All standings are ranked by gold. Pay attention to Athens 2004. Although Russia leads China in Total Medal Count, its ranked number 3 because China has more gold.

Answer 15

I agree with Cacee.  The reason Yahoo is ranking nations based on total medal count (which is really weird, mind you) is because the U.S. leads in that.  China has owned the U.S. in terms of gold medals.  I bet if the US were leading in Gold medals but not overall, the yahoo ranking system would be altered, and based on gold medals. Patriotism is one thing, but spinning things at your convenience to always look good, is pathetic.  Another example of how American media likes to twist things to make themselves look good, and others look bad.

Answer 16

If it's not it should be.  

Answer 17

i think its by the total medals no matter what color.