I never paid much attention to the medal tally until I got to Australia, where the Olympics is the world's biggest swim meet with lots of other events to give the champion swimmers something to enjoy as they savor their victory ...

... and it is very clearly the case in Oz that the medal tally is the total number of gold medals, with the minor medals only acting as a tie breaker.

But I have been seeing on the telly here in the US a lump sum medal tally, with a bronze and a gold having equal weight. That is, the medal tally is a Win=Place=Show tally.

So it this the real Gold Medal tally or the total medal tally? You'd think the gold medal tally would be more resistant to having, in effect, far and away the largest team in the Olympics.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.