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
Seems like the US won this year