medal counting
In these Olympics, China likes to count gold medals, because they have more of them than anyone else: as I write, 47 (to the U.S.‘s 31). The U.S. likes to count total medals, because they have more of them than anyone else: 102 (to China’s 89). But what if we were to count medal scores by giving three points for each gold, two for each silver, and one for each bronze? That would give China (47, 17, 25) a score of 200. And it would give the U.S. (31, 36, 35) . . . 200.
Funny, I was saying the same thing to my wife the other day. Either 3-2-1 or 5-3-1 are far and away the best ways to judge “victory” in the Olympics. All medals are equal, but some medals are more equal than others.
— AndrewN · Aug 22, 07:07 PM · #
What if we weighted them based on country’s population? Jamaica might give them both a run for their money.
— Julana · Aug 22, 07:29 PM · #
and what if we just enjoyed the individual performances and didn’t go all Cold War over which country is best? I realize that would be something like the Olympic ideal, but we can always dream.
— Steven Donegal · Aug 22, 08:05 PM · #
Not sure if it still holds up but last time I checked the countries which comprised the former Soviet Union have a combined total that beats everyone.
— Leigh Hartman · Aug 22, 08:25 PM · #
That’s exactly what I was thinking! Some sort of scoring system like that.
— Freddie · Aug 22, 08:48 PM · #
The UK also counts gold medals.
— Richard · Aug 22, 08:55 PM · #
It’s the medal count. Not the gold medal count, or worthiness of medal count. It has always and forever been a count of the medals won. What’s next, adding swimming to the decathlon?
— andrew fly · Aug 22, 11:31 PM · #
Or if we’re going to weigh them, why not weigh them…you know, by their weight? If we go by atomic weight, a gold medal would count for about 197, a silver for about 108, and a bronze for about 70.6 (assuming 88% copper, 12% tin).
Thus, the U.S.A. (31,36,35) scores 12466, and China (47,17,25) scores 12860.
So China leads by 394, which happens to be precisely two gold medals.
I declare that this coincidence proves that I have discovered the One True Way of figuring the overall Olympic score.
— Ethan C. · Aug 23, 12:14 AM · #
The WSJ did a good article on this the other day. Apparently the counting divide between the US and foreign countries goes back quite a ways, and its origin is unclear. Certainly this year, it seems a little too convenient that the US has the most overall medals but not the most golds, but that has not always been true through the years.
— right · Aug 23, 01:35 AM · #
I think Ethan has the definitive response to this problem. I’m calling the IOC on his behalf.
— Alan Jacobs · Aug 23, 02:17 AM · #
Or, what if we gave more points for winning medals in sports somebody actually cares about?
say, 20 points for a gold medal in men’s basketball, 2 point for gold in badminton, 15 points for gold in swimming or women’s gymnastics, 1 point for women’s weightlifting…
Look, truth to tell, the U.S. is doing just fine in sports we actually care about. Right now, most American men are paying more attention to pre-season NFL games or baseball pennant races than to the Olympics (which we only watch because our wives control the remote).
In the U.S., football tends to attract most of our best athletes. Reggie White might’ve made a great Greco-Roman wrestler, John Hannah might’ve made a great shot putter, Tony Siragusa might have made a great weight lifter, Deion Sanders might’ve made a great sprinter, and Bo Jackson might’ve made an awesome decathlete. Instead, they ended up in the NFL.
— astorian · Aug 23, 03:51 AM · #
@Julana: The NZ Herald’s done that (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10528184), with the table, as of 21 Aug, looking like this:
Slovenia
NZ
Jamaica
Australia
Armenia
Though I suspect Jamaica’s leapfrogged to first place by now.
— Ovid · Aug 23, 11:02 AM · #
Ovid,
Smart people, kiwis, and funny, commentors.
Enjoyed this thread.
— Julana · Aug 24, 01:22 AM · #
astorian is right. Let’s disband the NFL for the next 4 years and send those athletes to train for various Olympic events and then see what the medal count is.
— jacobus · Aug 24, 04:02 PM · #
In the U.S., football tends to attract most of our best athletes.
This is commonly asserted but not really true. For example, you say that Deion Sanders could have made a great sprinter. Deion’s fastest reliably timed 40 yard dash time was 4.18. Really fast. But Tyson Gay conservatively speaking could run a 3.70 40 yard dash. There’s really no comparison.
— Freddie · Aug 24, 06:28 PM · #
Freddie: While I tend to buy your argument, do you think the level of training/preparation that Deion (and other NFL types) have for the 40 yd. dash is equal to that of Tyson Gay? Basically, don’t you think that Gay doesn’t have many more gains to be made while Deion et al. can improve more on their times?
Honest question — I dunno.
— Klug · Aug 25, 03:32 PM · #
I’m sure they could. The problem is, when you’re talking about tenths of a second in a 40 yard dash— that’s huge. People see differences of two or three hundredths as being markedly important to the potential of the football player. I just don’t see people dropping the half second or more to get to Gay’s level. For another example, the top running back prospects in the NFL draft each year run about a 4.45; anything under 4.50 is considered elite speed, even among the speed positions. According the NBC Bolt ran the first 40 yards of the 100 meter dash in 3.49 seconds. These are pretty significant differences.
— Freddie · Aug 25, 05:41 PM · #
I don’t see how you can really compare athletic ability between a sprinter and a running back, as their training goals aren’t the same. The sprinter wants to maximize speed alone, while the running back is optimizing over speed & strength. I assume that if Tyson Gay had been aiming for an NFL career all this time, he would’ve given up several tenths of a second in order to be better able to muscle through a defensive line or shake off tacklers.
— kenB · Aug 25, 07:01 PM · #
Freddie, I generally agree with you. But it looks like Justin Gatlin ran only a 4.4 when he tried out for the NFL, so who knows? Still, the 100m is a lot further than 40 yards. Usain Bolt wouldn’t be the champ if the distance was 40 yards.
— Sancho · Aug 25, 10:15 PM · #
Or, what if we gave more points for winning medals in sports somebody actually cares about?
Or for winning medals in real Olympic sports. A gold in the decathlon should be worth about 10x as much as a gold in basketball. And winning a gold in beach volleyball should deduct 50 points from your country’s score.
— Michael Straight · Aug 26, 05:44 PM · #