Tokyo Olympics - The 2020/2021 Summer Games

[NUguy514]

China is handling getting edged out of winning the most gold medals really well, you guys.

[Culturegeek]

(08-15-2021 05:22 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  China is handling getting edged out of winning the most gold medals really well, you guys.

I have to admit that I don't like that it's ranked by gold medals. It wouldn't make a difference for Canada generally (11th in total, 11th by G/S/B ranking), but the idea that Ukraine is behind Kosovo because the latter won two gold medals (in one discipline) whereas the former won only one gold medal (but 19 medals in total, over 12 disciplines) is ludicrous in the extreme.

[NUguy514]

(08-15-2021 09:21 AM)Culturegeek Wrote:  

(08-15-2021 05:22 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  China is handling getting edged out of winning the most gold medals really well, you guys.

I have to admit that I don't like that it's ranked by gold medals. It wouldn't make a difference for Canada generally (11th in total, 11th by G/S/B ranking), but the idea that Ukraine is behind Kosovo because the latter won two gold medals (in one discipline) whereas the former won only one gold medal (but 19 medals in total, over 12 disciplines) is ludicrous in the extreme.

I agree. Bermuda, Morocco, and Puerto Rico all won all of one total medal, which just happened to be gold, and all three are ranked ahead of Kazakhstan (8 medals), Azerbaijan (7 medals), Colombia (5 medals), and Dominican Republic (5 medals) in the medal table that prioritizes gold medals. It's stupid. Halfway through the Olympics, Dan Wetzel, a sportswriter for Yahoo, wrote an absolutely moronic article about how China was leading the REAL medal count because gold is all that matters. Yeah, tell that to Simone Biles or Lilly King or Annie Lazor or Allyson Felix or any of the other silver and bronze medalists who were so thrilled to have medaled at all. It was infuriating, and I've always thought ranking by most medals won made the most sense.

It is true, though, that gold is all that matters to China, so I derive much pleasure in everyone calling out and mocking the lunacy the Chinese media is engaging in to try to pretend like they won the most golds. We pipped you at the end, guys.

[teppo2]

I think both need to be taken into consideration. Golds shouldn’t be the be all end all, but at the end of the day, 5 golds, 3 silvers and a bronze should rank higher than 1 gold, 3 silvers and 5 bronze. Maybe a medals points system - 5 for gold, 4 for silver, 3 for bronze? Although it’s certainly less clean.

[NUguy514]

(08-15-2021 05:47 PM)teppo2 Wrote:  I think both need to be taken into consideration. Golds shouldn’t be the be all end all, but at the end of the day, 5 golds, 3 silvers and a bronze should rank higher than 1 gold, 3 silvers and 5 bronze. Maybe a medals points system - 5 for gold, 4 for silver, 3 for bronze? Although it’s certainly less clean.

Oh definitely, and I think the rankings do take that into consideration when there are ties in the total number of medals. If the same number of medals has been won, then the medals are sub-ranked by golds won, then silvers. For instance, two golds rank ahead of a gold and silver, which rank ahead of a gold and a bronze, which rank ahead of two silvers, which rank ahead of a silver and a bronze, which rank ahead of two bronzes. That makes sense to me; one gold (Bermuda, Morocco, Puerto Rico) ranking ahead of eight bronzes (Kazakhstan) does not.

[teppo2]

I guess I should’ve been more clear. I agree that Kazakhstan shouldn’t be ranked behind those three nations with just the 1 gold. But i also think golds should be weighted more favorably even when the totals don’t align. For example, this year, Ukraine went 1-6-12, while Spain went 3-8-6. Currently by total, Ukraine has the most. However, I don’t think it should rank ahead of a country that won more golds and more silvers, while still winning a fair number of bronze in relation. If you assigned the medals points per the allocation I suggested above (which isn’t necessarily the allocation I’m fully committed to - that would need to be evaluated), both countries would have 65 points - which, by virtue of the tiebreaker going to the country with the most golds, would put Spain on top. I also think Cuba has a potentially legitimate claim to a more successful games with it’s 7-3-5 count, but its total points would be 62, so I’m not sure if the point allocation should be weighted further up top or if I’m comfortable at that stopping point.

[Culturegeek]

I don't think there really is a clean way to do it, to be honest. My mathematical formula would include total medals, gold medals, number of disciplines medals won in, and medals per million of population. But that's just making things confusing.

[teppo2]

I love the idea of San Marino winning the medal count because they get a gold in Equestrian, a silver in Ping Pong and a bronze in Shooting.

Edit: on that note; here’s a fun link I found:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102...ince-1892/