Weighted Medal Count

[baywatcher]

To start with, nationalism should be de-emphasized in the Olympics. National anthems shouldn't be played at each medal ceremony, play whatever the winner wants (which could be America the Beautiful). But medal counts by country are here to stay, and being a hypocrite I do pay attention to medal scores.

My main point is that medal counts do not reflect "athletic prowress", as much more effort and resources can go into certain medals, most noticeably team sports, than specialized sports. The main example is soccer, the most popular sport in the world, where everyone plays and tries, gets one set of medals after two weeks of competition. Meanwhile South Korea in Archery, Indonesia in badminton, China in diving, or USA/Australia in swimming are stacking up large amounts of medals because many are awarded. Does that mean the latter are proportionately better at athletics? No.

I propose that in evaluating national team performance at the Olympics weighted scores be given in proportion to the popularity and participation in the sport on a world wide basis. Soccer could have 10 points, rhythmic gymnastics .4 points, something like that. And where would volleyball be?

[mikegarrison]

What's your point?

Medal counts are silly. [Check.]

Nationalism in the Olympics is counter to the spirit of pure athletic competition. [Check. Why do we have national teams at all?]

It would be better if they played America The Beautiful than The Star Spangled Banner. [No check. Still nationalistic.]

It would be better if we did "weighted medal counts". [No check. Still a medal count, and still nationalistic.]

[khitt]

Using Nations makes the qualification process easy....

[baywatcher]

My point is we shouldn't have country medal counts, but since we do, why not come up with a system that reflects national "superiority" in a more accurate way everybody can relate to. Everybody runs and swims, not everybody throws balls in baskets or hits ping pong balls. I think they should let the athletes pick their own music; America the Beautiful could be a choice for a patriotic winner. Me, I'd pick Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit 'cause that was playing when I got my first kiss.

And the qualification process could be like they do in track; in if you have a good time, only so many per country. Have regional qualification events for direct competition events. Team sports would have to stay by country. Of course nations will always stay around because the National Olympic Committees pay for a lot, leaving the IOC to wallow in profits and bribes.

[pogoball]

The way the medal count worked has always bothered me as well.

I've thought about two other alternatives which are simpler, though less accurate than your idea:

1) Count all the medals given out. That is, if the US indoor volleyball team wins a gold medal, give the US 12 gold medals in its overall count. This is not only very simple but arguably a more accurate medal count than the current method, which doesn't actually count every medal.

2) Instead of counting every medal, only give a country credit for "gold/silver/bronze" in each particular sport. That is, if the US wins the most swimming medals, they get one gold medal for swimming instead of 52,147 medals.