Total medals or most golds. Which is more important?

[LLJ]

Canada must have won this Olympics for the most 4th place finishes.

[tha_rock220]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

[Tom Baker]

Canada must have won this Olympics for the most 4th place finishes.

Oh, no kidding. That first week was excruciating.

I guess since Canadians are used to being 2nd best, that wouldn't do because in the Olympics that gets you a silver medal. So we adjusted admirably and started getting 4th place.

We still finished tied for our 3rd best Olympics ever.

[Tom Baker]

Between most golds and most medals i prefer most golds... but i think something like a points race would be more interesting, 5 points for gold, 3 for silver and 1 for bronze, ie.

If there were a point system, I'd say at least 10 pt for gold, 3 for silver and 1 for bronze. With 5/3/1, 1 silver = 3 bronze, and 1 gold < 2 silver. It makes no sense.

I see what you're saying. How bout a 4/2/1 system?

Still, when you have 100 people in a race, for example, getting any of the 3 medals is quite the accomplisment. Hell, the silver medalists were a couple 1000ths of a second behind the gold medalists in a lot of cases. 5/3/1 is fine.

____________________

Anyway, here are the final standings under each of those systems:

5/3/1

China 346 pts
USA 330 pts

10/3/1

China 601 pts
USA 510 pts

4/2/1

China 274 pts
USA 256 pts

Under all these systems, China wins the games.

[XcalibuR]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

Too bad the US sucked so much in track this year.

[leaguegod692]

easily most gold


doing it by totals medals is stupid, does winning 2 bronze medals really make you better then a gold medal winner



china kicked us this game and won the tally EASILY

[vwc228]

Canada must have won this Olympics for the most 4th place finishes.

That one hurts

[raleigh]

Better question - why should we care?

I love pulling for my home nation, but I watch the Olympics for the excitement and competition, not just because I want to be able to claim my country's athletic program is better than another's.

Just as an example - I'm not from Jamaica, but watching Usain Bolt smash those records was near the top for me this Olympics.

[vwc228]

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

This is just absolute nonsense. Alot of people don't care about the events that the US won medals in. Does that mean they are worthless events? Just because Americans aren't any good at some sports that other nations dominate, that doesn't mean these events should be ignored. You're also wrong about swimming being popular with many countries. A lot of people for example, in many parts of the world, especially the developing world, don't give a rats ass about swimming. It's a sport that needs a lot of money/resources to participate in and many of these countries just don't have them and therefore the sport is not practiced in their countries.

[RockTHECasbah]

how about a formula like G*5 + S*2.5 + B*1

[TMU]

No formula needed. It has always been most gold. I can't believe ESPN, NY Times and other sites have most medals as default to put U.S. at the top. We should just accept the fact that China has outperformed us in this Olympics. Our athletes will have to work harder and tougher as a whole.

[Fairview4Life]

In a situation where it's relatively close, total golds. In a situation where a country has a ton of medals and no gold, compared to another with only a few but one gold, then count should be worth something. But I'm not really sure what you get for "winning" the Olympics in the first place.

[tha_rock220]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

Too bad the US sucked so much in track this year.

they got 7 golds, 9 silver, and 7 bronze in the bird's nest. try again. yeah they werent as dominant as usual, but they still did good competitions that actually matter.

[kyphi]

I suppose I am in the minority here because I don't care who has the most golds or medals. To me, being able to watch the competitions is the most important.

[RockTHECasbah]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

The IOC already limits the number of entrants from each country. In one competition I remember watching, some of the world's best athletes in that discipline were Japanese, but they were excluded because their was a limit on the number of participants from each country.

[UrbanLegendMD]

I suppose I am in the minority here because I don't care who has the most golds or medals. To me, being able to watch the competitions is the most important.

STFU, woman!

[XcalibuR]

they got 7 golds, 9 silver, and 7 bronze in the bird's nest. try again. yeah they werent as dominant as usual, but they still did good competitions that actually matter.

Ya one more gold than Jamaica, two more than Kenya, one more than a declining Russia, in US standards thats sucking.

[Slava]

I suppose I am in the minority here because I don't care who has the most golds or medals. To me, being able to watch the competitions is the most important.

STFU, woman!

Public warning for an insult towards another poster.

This is a direct violation of the TOS of the forums and you've been here long enough to know that.

[canoner]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

Ignorance to the extrem. Shooting, weightlifting, diving are all popular sports around the world. On the other hand, swimming is the most overrated sport in olympic games. No only only a handful of countries participate, but also it doesn't warrant 34 golds.

[MaxRider]

A point system would be nice but in that system gold should be awarded A LOT MORE points than a silver. Just ask yourself would you rather your team (NBA, NFL, MLB) win a championship or make 3 failed trips to the finals? I'd take the trophy in a heartbeat.

The IOC refuses to do this because ideally the olympics isn't countries facing each other it's the athletes and teams from the countries competing. To make an official point system or make a ruling on whether medal count or most golds is most important would take away from the olympics even though most of us will do it anyway.

Besides, nobody cares about the events a lot of China's medal haul was in. Shooting, weightlifting, sync diving, yeah right. It's a lot more impressive to win gold in a sport where most countries try to enter athletes(see swimming and track) than to win in obscure sports that are an afterthought or just ignored by some countries.

Ignorance to the extrem. Shooting, weightlifting, diving are all popular sports around the world. On the other hand, swimming is the most overrated sport in olympic games. No only only a handful of countries participate, but also it doesn't warrant 34 golds.

One problem I had with swimming is allow to swim underwater at every turn. I guess they don't have enough money to make a 1000m long pool. Same goes for track. I don't like the turn, why can't they just run straight for 200m?