If you are anything like the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), then you will probably say that the Olympics are not about winning or losing, or the number of medals a given country has won. And you may very well be right.
However, we competitive, greedy human beings naturally value winning and losing over much else. Especially, it seems, when we are spectators.
Because of the IOC’s view, though, there is no formal ranking on how to “win” the Olympics, or what qualifies as the official score; it varies depending your location.
If you are most of the world, the number of gold medals determines who is “winning” with ties broken up by the number of silver and bronze medals. However, if you’re in the United States or watching NBC, it’s the total medal count that matters, regardless of colour.
Counting total medals rather than gold medals implies that a gold medal is equal to a bronze one, that it is irrelevant whether you place first, second, or third; you’ve just got to place in the top three.
Although the US was fourth in number of gold medals these Olympics, according to their counting system, they cruise to second place with their bronze medal wins.
This does not make a large difference in Sochi, but in Vancouver, their system planted them firmly atop the standings with 37 total medals while the system rewarding the number of gold medals strongly favoured Canada.
You can call me biased in my belief that the gold medal system is better, as it favours Canada, but those who win truly, should win it all — not because they’re second or third.
Earning an Olympic silver or bronze medal is no small feat, and deserves proper recognition, but the system should be weighted in favour of the actual winner. At the very least the system should recognize gold medals as better than silver medals, and silver medals as better than bronze.
The Sochi Olympics, for all the concerns prior to the Opening Ceremonies, were an unquestionable hit. Russia, with 13 gold and 33 medals total, was the runaway winner by both counts.
But it won’t always be that easy — and for a two-week event that’s all about determining who’s the best, it’s a shame that we can’t properly determine who had the
best Olympics.
