During and after the Olympics you always see the Medal Table, who’s got more golds who’s got more total. But neither one of those really tell you the whole picture. We need a scoring system, and the summer swim league I grew up in (Northern Virginia Swimming League) has a great one:
- Gold = 5 points
- Silver = 3 points
- Bronze = 1 point
With that system the US still won, but France moves from 5th up to 3rd. It’s a much more straightforward evaluation of Olympic performance than debating gold vs. total.
In swimming, the US broadcast made it seem like the US and Australia were close, with the battle for the most golds coming down to the last race. But the score shows a different picture, one where the US smashed the Australians during the course of the week-long meet
Here’s a link to the full medal table with the scoring in place https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_yjOUp3VHvRMhI7DmIvUHq436L1MFbuHe-eu8m5G64Y/edit?usp=sharing
What is it if 3-2-1?
We don’t need a scoring system. The entire reason the medal table is unofficial is because it’s directly the opposite of the Olympic spirit.
Everyone won the Olympics this year, except Raygun.
Seems like the US won this year
No country “wins” the Olympics. Athletes win their events.
Strange weighting. This says that you’d give up 3 bronzes for a silver, but you wouldn’t swap two silvers for a gold.
I’m fairly sure that almost every single athlete alive would trade two silvers for a gold. Two silvers and a bronze for gold is more 50/50 thus why I like the 2x+1 weighting.
But it really doesn’t change the ordering much though. The top 10 ordered four different ways, by gold, 3x, 2x + 1, and total.
Moving from gold to total ordering
Japan is one of the biggest losers which is a shame as their gold performances were excellent, even if they did push us into 4th in the final days.
Great Britain is one of the biggest winners with a large number of bronze medals.
In swimming, the US broadcast made it seem like the US and Australia were close, with the battle for the most golds coming down to the last race.
Because it was close, with the battle for most golds coming down to the last race.
But the score shows a different picture, one where the US smashed the Australians during the course of the week-long meet
The score? Which score? This arbitrary score you’ve made up? Why not award golds a million points and say you’ve obliterated the Aussies? There’s not much point in Australia competing anymore, considering you’ve got 20 trillion more points.
Why does this shit constantly come from Americans? You did really well! Why do you have to create a system where you “smashed” an opponent? So many of you seem to be such sore winners.
People can’t just watch a huge sporting event of amazingly talented and hardworking athletes compete amongst themselves without turning it into a giant d*ck-measuring contest. It’s all about living vicariously through their medal winners and showing their tribalistic nature in the worst way. Those kind of people are just pathetic and completely misses the Olympic spirit
This is stupid.
Each event stands alone. There are three medal awarded for each event.
That’s it.
Of course the USA. We’re the best country in the world 🇺🇸!
No country wins or loses the Olympics. The medal table is unofficial, just as whatever you’ve created here is. It’s as arbitrary and pointless as all the other tables created on this sub ranking countries by population, wealth or coffee intake.
Why 5-3-1? Why not 3-2-1? Or 10-5-1?
It’s all arbitrary. And it’s so preoccupied with comparing a gold to a bronze it completely ignores the fact you’re comparing shot put to sailing.
All the medals are doing is ranking the best three people in a sport’s discipline. Countries obviously use them to gauge relative success, but that’s all it is: finger in the air ballpark of whether the money they’re spending is paying off. It’s not meant to be a way for someone to say they won the Olympics. That’s why the medal table is UNOFFICIAL. There is no unbiased, fair or accurate way to compare success across wildly different disciplines.
