Hi everyone!

I’m a huge nerd for the olympic games, trying to watch as much as possible every time.
However, I’m always bothered by the medals table since it is completely arbitrary in my opinion. Many (team) sports offer a maximum of two medals (while requiring the full two weeks), while some other sports offer dozens within a few days. This always skews the medals table unfairly towards the nations that are strong in those sports that offer many medals specifically, while putting nations that are strong in team sports at a disadvantage.
So for every olympic games I make my own medals table where I divide the value of a medal by the number of events a sport offers.

I figured that, while it’s just a bit of fun for me, it might also be interesting for some here.
Mind you, I do not argue that “my way is better”. It’s just a different way to look at it.

The formula I specifically used for the score is:
[x being the number of events in one sport]
For a gold medal: (1/x)*100*4
For a silver medal: (1/x)*100*2
For a bronze medal: (1/x)*100
[This values a gold medal as twice as valuable as a silver, and a silver as twice as valuable as a bronze]

As an example: One silver medal in Handball is worth 100 points (1/2*100*2), and one gold medal in sailing 40 (1/10*100*4).
This means there’s 700 points total being given out for each sport equally (400 for all gold, 200 for all silver, and 100 for all bronze medals)

All those scores for each medal combined gives the final score, which results in this list:

(I also have a huge spreadsheet if there’s any interest in the details)

https://preview.redd.it/8rtf6rt72aid1.png?width=523&format=png&auto=webp&s=611997e0929eec13a9e2315f2bbc68e09ddc792f

  • FunicularlyBEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    How would China surpass the USA under this reasoning? In the larger team sports, China won bronze in women’s field hockey, and that’s it.

    The USA won gold in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s football, silver in women’s volleyball, bronze in women’s rugby sevens, bronze in men’s volleyball, and bronze in men’s water polo.

    Something serious wack with your numbers.

    • DragonKhan2000OPBEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      China DOMINATED specifically Diving, Artistic Swimming and Table Tennis, getting ALL the gold medals. So they got a huge score from that. Getting all the gold medals in one sport will net you 400 points, no matter how many events are in that sport.

      And yeah, numbers are whack. It’s just for fun.

    • January1171BEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Yes, but nearly half of USA medals (62) came from just swimming and athletics. Those two categories are going to have a lot less weight. Taking out swimming and athletics medals for both countries, it’s 64 USA 75 China. That’s the area where China is able to get ahead. It’s not just about the team sports

      • DragonKhan2000OPBEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Precisely. In a nutshell, China was stronger in a wider variety of sports.

  • NoNeedleworker1296BEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Pls brace yourself for the bombardment from the dumb megas, cuz you put China before the US.

    TBH, I will definitely leave this country if Trump wins - even China is much better than here. Much worse should he lose - all hells will break loose, perhaps even a civil war.