I read a couple of snide comments about NBC and other US media listing countries by total number of medals not by the number of Gold medals - with the US showing on top.
So I weighted the medals as follows - Gold 2 points, Silver 1.5 and Bronze 1, and in another column I weighted Gold as 3, Silver as 2 and Bronze as 1 (click on table to see larger image)
Japan would break the top 10 displacing Ukraine in both weighted scenarios.
In Scenario 2, US still comes up on top. In Scenario 3, China slightly pips the US. Of course, there is the Scenario 1 - the unweighted medal count.
Since the US comes out ahead in 2 out of 3 scenarios, can we settle the matter?
Having said that, China surpassed expectations both in the medals - and of course the logistics, the ceremonies etc. In so many ways, it was a coming out party for China.
Update: The International Olympics Committee uses Gold medals as the sorting criterion.
