Is there a default medal count system for the Olympics? I've seen it ranked by total medals and by number of gold medals. But never some sort of point system. i.e. Gold=3 points, Silver=2 points, Bronze=1 point. Kind of weird, since neither of the current system is really "fair" in any sort of manner.
Nevermind, I found this. The ranking sorts by the number of gold medals earned by a country (in this context a country is an entity represented by a National Olympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. So it goes my number of Golds. If there's a tie then they sort but number of Silvers then number of Bronze.
Oh, so there is an official ranking. I usually find it listed by total medals. Probably mainly because the US always look really nice compared to other countries when you count this. Kind of place way too much emphasis on the gold, IMHO.
I once competed in a science competition despite of the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about the subject because there were only two guys in it. I got a bronze medal! That's the whole point of competition you know...participation
It's funny because the NBC Olympic website lists it by total medals, conveniently putting USA on top!
It is usually listed by total medals. The number of Gold, Silver and Bronze are only used if there is a tie in total Medals. Say 2 teams tie with 10 total medals on the medal table. To break the tie they look at gold first, if they each have 4 Golds then they look at Silver. If they have the same number of Silver then they will have the same number of Bronze and thus be completely tied. If that is the case then they are listed as tied and put in alphabetical order on the table.
