Why does our US news media rank by total medals and not by total gold medals for the Olympic games?

Question

According to the International Olympic Committee, The ranking is sorted by the number of gold medals. In a gold medal tie, the ranking is then sorted by the number of silver medals, and in a gold + silver medal tie, the ranking is then sorted by the number of bronze medals. As such, aren't most US news media, including Yahoo! Olympic coverage, intentionally misleading us when they rank by total medal instead of gold medals?

Answer 1

If USA had the most gold and China had the most medals,  they would list it by gold.    

Answer 2

Why do the US media do it this way? I don't know, but there is no logic to it and no-one else in the world does it this way. Certainly not the IOC and contrary to what someone else said - this does matter, because they are the governing body. It's not up to anyone else to determine what medals mean. The system used by the US media means that 15 Bronze medals are worth more than than 10 Gold and 4 Silver which is clearly nonsense. You could perhaps award a number of points for each type of medal, but such a system could be weighted in so many different ways that there could never be any agreement. There may be a precedent for this if you look at the New York Times article from 1912 it says that the USA won the Olympics with the most points. However AFAIK this seems to be an invention of the New York Times or some other body not associated with the IOC. The IOC do not award points per medal and they do not award an overall prize for "winning the Olympics" - this is an invention of the media.

The US has historically submitted a large, if not the largest, team to each Olympics and consequently have more chance of winning a larger number of overall medals. Perhaps, aware of this, the US media realise that ranking competing nations using the total medal count is more likely make it look like the US are doing well, or perhaps its just another example of the US doing something different to the rest of the world, because that's what they do. If its the latter, then as stated above it makes no logical sense and I don't know why they persist with it, other than "that's the way they've always done it" - although the New York Times article suggests otherwise.

Answer 3

No.

The US has always used Total Medal Count.

It doesn't matter what the IOC uses.

Answer 4

Because they do.  Who cares.  If you cant figure out that they are posting it as total medals then you have bigger things to worry about then why it is done the way it is. Why are they doing it, because they can.  Why is the sky blue, why is the grass green? Its just the way it is!

Answer 5

I checked other websites and found that it is true.  They have the total medals but they have them listed in order of points.  So China is in first on cbc but on nbc they are in second to the usa.  I think that is a poor sportsmanship thing for NBC to do.

And that is the stress point there.  This isn't the americans this is the media.  And you cannot judge everyday people by the media.  The media is showing a tainted picture.  IT is what the media does best.

Just as it wasn't the swedens who through a fit when not getting the gold.  It was one man.  Yes, he repersented his country but I am sure he was heavily reprimanded becuse it made his whole nation look bad.  But I personally do not judge a whole nation by one man.  I am not going to say all swedes are poor sports because of that one man.

and neither will I say all americans can't stand to lose to the the chinese because of the media's biased rating system.

also, the judging system is not done but purely the chinese there is a board of judges from other countries hand selected.

Answer 6

I agree.  If you are mislead by the words TOTAL MEDALS, then you have bigger issues.  Get over it.  

Answer 7

In Athens, I thought they ranked by total gold medals. Maybe because they're not doing as well this time?  

Answer 8

Catch http://www.olympicgamesbeijingin2008.com... for detail info

Answer 9

On behalf of American people and the world, I condemn Yahoo and  other media misleading us ,one more time they show their info is mouth piece to serve politic aim