Why does the U.S insist of placing themselves at the top of the Olympic medall tally in U.S websites?

Question

It is obvious to everyone that China is clearing the gold medals with 17 (as of now) therefore they are winning the event, but websites like ESPN place U.S at the top

Answer 1

Because it is a medal tally, as opposed to a gold medal tally.  

Answer 2

i dont know, its kinda weired , american media is kinda retarded and taking everyone for a ride

Answer 3

Cause we're better than everyone else.

Answer 4

There is no official way of calculating the medal tally because frankly most nations dont give a d**n. The country that sends the biggest delegation and pours the most money into sports usually ends up on top.

Answer 5

Because obviously Americans want to see how many gold medals they have before another country...  

Answer 6

First of all, the rankings are usually done by total number of medals, of all colors.  The U.S. has more total medals.

Second, I imagine that American sites might put the U.S. near the top anyway, even if we didn't have the most, 'cause that's what Americans would be most interested in, how many their country has won.

Answer 7

well . . . honestly you answered your own question - it is the Olympic medal tally - not Olympic gold medal tally.  otherwise they'd drop all bronze & silver medals, as well as all the countries that haven't won a gold medal yet.

~~~ morgannia

Answer 8

Because the USA doesn't understand that silver is only first of the losers.

As such silver and bronze is only good for separating countries with the same number of gold medals.

They don't get that the whole point is to win the gold not the silver or the bronze.

Edit: judging by some of the answers they don't understand what a tally is either

Answer 9

This is an American approach only. They use total medals for some reason but the Official Tally from the International Olympic Committee always places emphasis on Gold Medals. You can see by going to the official results from Athens. The US won on both counts anyway but countries like Germany finished 6th when the had more medals (but less Gold) than Japan who finished 5th. Just the USA being different from the rest of the world again.......   (actually their tally helps us Aussies this time, we are 4th on their list but 6th officially!)