More Medals or More Golds?

[McNulty]

Would you rather have more overall medals then every other country, or more Golds then every other country?

[Mackus]

Definitely more Golds.

And honestly, I think anybody who says more overall medals is only saying that because the US has the most overall medals as opposed to the most overall Golds.

[square634]

More golds... that means that you have the best athletes in the world in the sports your country focuses on.

[Danielos38]

I'd rather have more golds, but I realistically think that we could have had both, which is obviously better.

[TyCobb]

Definitely more Golds.

And honestly, I think anybody who says more overall medals is only saying that because the US has the most overall medals as opposed to the most overall Golds.

Having the most medals shows we have the greatest pool of athletics. Now I voted for more Golds cause that just better, but overall is still meaningful.

[Mackus]

Having the most medals shows we have the greatest pool of athletics. Now I voted for more Golds cause that just better, but overall is still meaningful.

I don't think having the most medals is meaningless, but having the most Gold medals shows your dominance more, and therefore is better.

[The Wedge]

I actually fluctuate back and forth between what I think is better all the time. On one hand, more golds means you just rocked the crap out of a lot of events. But most overall medals means your country has placed top 3 in the world in the most events...both are pretty darn impressive.

[glenn__davis]

More golds for me. Hats off to the Chinese. They vowed to win more golds than the US at the Olympics and have done so rather handily.

Aside from Phelps, I think this is probably viewed as a dissappointing Olympics for the US. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin had good individual performances, but we lost that team competition to China. Katie Hoff failed to win a single gold. The softball team lost. The track and field team was bound to have some success, but by and large I think they've been viewed as a major dissappointment, although Tyson Gay's injury probably has a lot to do with that.

Obviously most other countries in the world would love to have an Olympics like the US has had, but I have to think it could've been a lot better.

[Mackus]

I actually fluctuate back and forth between what I think is better all the time. On one hand, more golds means you just rocked the crap out of a lot of events. But most overall medals means your country has placed top 3 in the world in the most events...both are pretty darn impressive.

Yeah but 3 is a pretty arbitrary number. Why not give out ruby and amethys medals and say top 5? Or just limit it to gold and silver and say top 2?

Golds is where its at.

[ElToro75]

Would you rather have more overall medals then every other country, or more Golds then every other country?

I would say more medals overall.

If you assign a point value to each medal, in this case 3 for a Gold, 2 for a Silver, and 1 for a Bronze (much like the way high school track meets are scored) then it's easier to determine an overall "Olympic Winner" in medals

US

• Gold - 30 (90 points)
• Silver - 36 (72 points)
• Bronze - 35 (35 points)

China

• Gold - 47 (141 points)
• Silver - 16 (32 points)
• Bronze - 25 (25 points)

With this method, the US has 197 points and China has 198 total points. Pretty close so far by my method.

Here is my reasoning:
Going back to HS track, my HS team won 3 out of 4 state championships this way. We would always have a decent amount of gold medals, but we always had alot of athletes finish 2nd - 5th. There would always be a few teams that would win a good many golds, but they weren't deep enough to finish athletes 2nd - 5th. We would accumulate more total points that way and therefore won 3 state championships in 4 years.

[The Wedge]

Yeah but 3 is a pretty arbitrary number. Why not give out ruby and amethys medals and say top 5? Or just limit it to gold and silver and say top 2?

Golds is where its at.

So's the judging in a lot of the events to begin with...

[ChaosLex]

And honestly, I think anybody who says more overall medals is only saying that because the US has the most overall medals as opposed to the most overall Golds.

Yeesh! Way to stereotype us.

While gold is nice, I'm pretty happy when our boys/gals win ANY medal.

[Mackus]

I'm pretty happy when our boys/gals win ANY medal.

Me too, but thats not what this thread is about.

The thread is about what is the better title:

Country with the most Gold medals
or
Country with the most medals total

[Sports Guy]

I will say more medals....Shows you have a better balance in all sports.

Not many countries can put a great Saber and beach volleyball teams out there.

I think it also depends on what sports the golds are coming in...Are you winning a lot in judo, archery, canoeing, kayaking and badminton?

Or are you winning in the sports that are much more mainstream and have many more people competing in them?

[Mackus]

I think it also depends on what sports the golds are coming in...Are you winning a lot in judo, archery, canoeing, kayaking and badminton?

Or are you winning in the sports that are much more mainstream and have many more people competing in them?

I can't disagree with this line of thinking any more strongly.

Every gold medal at the Olympics is just as important as any other.