The problem with the above is that it can distort the truth. If football were to be an Olympic sport and the US won and all 45 members of the team counted in the "gold medal" column but Jamaica won 45 individual gold medals in 45 events, it would appear that both countries had the same success when they did not.

 

 

It is certainly reasonable to consider the U.S basketball team to have won 12 golds rather than one. The basketball tournament requires a team to play eight games that last two hours each. Thus it requires roughly 16 hours of competition from a group of 12 players to secure that championship. How can all that be equated to a single parallel bars routine that takes maybe two minutes to complete?

Didn't surprise me. I thought something was up.

 

 

Does anyone have the actual totals?

There is 1 gold medal awarded for every Olympic event. If there are 8 members of the team that won the gold or 15 it should count as one. You or that team won the event. No different than any other major sport. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl, they all received rings, but the team won the championship. I know, there is no championship count like there is a medal count, but you get my point.

 

I know I have no reasoning behind this other than it has always been that way. It's really not a big deal.

There is 1 gold medal awarded for every Olympic event. If there are 8 members of the team that won the gold or 15 it should count as one. You or that team won the event. No different than any other major sport. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl, they all received rings, but the team won the championship. I know, there is no championship count like there is a medal count, but you get my point.

 

I know I have no reasoning behind this other than it has always been that way. It's really not a big deal.

 

I agree with you, 98. I am not seeing what the big deal is here.

 

 

It is certainly reasonable to consider the U.S basketball team to have won 12 golds rather than one. The basketball tournament requires a team to play eight games that last two hours each. Thus it requires roughly 16 hours of competition from a group of 12 players to secure that championship. How can all that be equated to a single parallel bars routine that takes maybe two minutes to complete?

 

Now he's talking about how hard it is to win medals in some events. It doesn't change the theory that one event = one medal. If not, we have to start judging each event by their difficulty and I don't think we want the IOC getting involved in anymore intangible discussions.

 

I respect DeCourcy but I think his basketball bias is taking over and this is a silly discussion.

There is 1 gold medal awarded for every Olympic event. If there are 8 members of the team that won the gold or 15 it should count as one. You or that team won the event. No different than any other major sport. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl, they all received rings, but the team won the championship. I know, there is no championship count like there is a medal count, but you get my point.

 

I know I have no reasoning behind this other than it has always been that way. It's really not a big deal.

 

I don't know that this has ever happened in anything besides sports betting, but I think I'm going to have to agree with 98. For the purposes of the medal count, it has to be one gold medal for each sport (unless, of course, there is a tie for the gold AND no "made up" tie breaking system to shaft one of the two winners). Don't get me wrong, I am very pleased that the U.S. did well in team sports, but we can't say they won 350 medals just because some of the sports were team sports.

:thumb:

Now he's talking about how hard it is to win medals in some events. It doesn't change the theory that one event = one medal. If not, we have to start judging each event by their difficulty and I don't think we want the IOC getting involved in anymore intangible discussions.

 

I respect DeCourcy but I think his basketball bias is taking over and this is a silly discussion.

I have agreed for a long time with the same point that gametime is trying to make by posting this. Now, I think the hysteria over the medal count is absolutely absurd because I couldn't care less about who won the 10-meter air rifle event (It was an Indian, by the way, their first indvidual gold in many years). He's simply making a point that some sports require more time in competition and, as such, should perhaps be weighted that way.

 

It's worth noting that they probably already are--at least in the minds of most people. Basketball and soccer have huge global followings and so winning those is a VERY big deal.

 

In basketball, the same 12 men or women compete in two-hour games 8 times in two weeks for one medal. Judo gives out four medals at each weight class and each class only competes for a day or two. It certainly doesn't seem very balanced. I'm not advocating for any changes in the way medals are counted or weighted by the IOC... it's just something that's always worth mentioning.

 

...because you KNOW the Chinese have been celebrating their "most gold medals" performance.

The Chinese won the most gold medals based on the current format. They concentrated on sports that they could win and they won them. It is what it is.

If they only gave out one gold medal, sure...

 

Great! We'll (X) never catch Trinity now. :fight: They got 110 championships last season since that's how many rings they got!

 

T fans, don't kill me if the # is wrong, just pulled it out of my donkey.