The United States has had an excellent showing at the Summer Olympics. It has won the most medals by far, and has been trading the lead with China for most gold medals (as of early Saturday morning in Paris).
But that’s not all. The U.S. has won the most medals looking only at men’s events, and the most counting only women’s. It has won the most medals in team events and the most in solo competitions.
But Americans haven’t won in every way you could slice it. They haven’t won the most medals in events with weapons (yes, the javelin counts). And they haven’t won the most in sports scored by judges.
These are extremely unofficial categories. But they do reveal some interesting patterns — if it felt as if South Korean athletes dominated the archery and sharpshooting podiums, they did.
The U.S., by contrast, has won the most medals in events that involved a race of some type. And when a ball was involved, be it a basketball or a golf ball, the U.S. excels, too. Even if we exclude all the swimming events, a U.S. strength, the Americans have the most medals.
We should note that we are sorting these tables by total medals, not gold medals. Opinions differ on the proper approach.
And the U.S. is, of course, a large country with many resources. If you want to give the small countries a fair shot, the tables below can help out.
Which way of counting is best? That’s for you to decide. You can pick your favorite here.
The post Who Won the Olympics? All the Ways We Could Think Of to Track the Medal Count. appeared first on New York Times.
