Talk:Winter Olympics medal count

Editing this page
NOTE: Please do not add any medals from the 2006 Torino games until after the official tally of medals from those games has been made. This will make it easier to add these medals later! Thanks —Jared 17:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Suggestion
I think it's better to remove the "Ranks" because the different states are not comparable. For example USSR and East Germany will go down in time and maybe in 30 years they are no more in the Top 10. But both states were between the best all time they existet. Ranking means rating and so the US will in the near future be on top beside Norway and Rusia for example has no real chance to come close. But this don't show the fact that over all years the Rusian/USSR and US sport is at least on the same level in winter sports. But thats for sure only my opinion and only a suggestion. - Frank from (East)Germany

There's two Slovenias? The other one is also blank for Silver and Croatia is blank for Bronze. 80.222.254.10 00:18, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Here is a list of the "winners" of each edition:

1924-Norway 1928-Norway 1932-USA 1936-Norway 1948-Sweden 1952-Norway 1956-USSR 1960-USSR 1964-USSR 1968-Norway 1972-USSR 1976-USSR 1980-USSR 1984-East Germany 1988-USSR 1992-Germany 1994-Russia 1998-Germany 2002-Norway

--Scaryice 09:24, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Dependence of Medal Count Statistics on Number of Participations
The current table does not reflect that some nations participated frequently while others did not or changed names etc. This needs to be pointed out (and I did). Medalstats

List of Medal Count Winners by Gold and by Total
Also completed the rankings by number of medal count wins: Total medal count: The USSR/GUS won 7 times: 1956 1960 1964 1972 1976 1980 1988. Norway won 6 times: 1924 1928 1936 1952 1968 1994. Combining East and West, Germany won 8 times: 1980 1992 1998 2002 (1972 1976 1984 1988: East + West beating the USSR). Sweden won in 1948, the US in 1932. Gold count: The USSR/GUS won 8 times: 1956 1960 1964 1972 1976 1980 1988 1994. Norway won 5 times: 1924 1928 1936 1952 1968. Combining East and West, Germany won 6 times: 1984 1992 1998 2003 (1980 1988: East + West beating the USSR). Sweden won in 1948, the US in 1932.

Medalstats

IOC "Gold first method"
Why doesn't this use the IOC's official "Gold first method" used in the rankings of individual games? 128.230.233.30 02:42, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Some of the medal counts are incorrect after the change to gold first method. North Korea has no gold medal in winter Olympics.

Add Flags!!
Could someone please take the time to add flags before the name of each country. Also, the same thing needs to be done to the Summer Olympics medal count page. You can use this page as an example if you don't know what I am talking about! Thank you very much! --Jared 20:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Redo
I made up a spreadsheet which sorts them as per the gold first method and updated this and the summer page. I'd be happy to share the spreadsheet if anyone else cares... --SFoskett 22:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)


 * There was an error in my data regarding North Korea, Romania, and some others. This has been repaired.  The source spreadsheet may be found at Commons:Image:Olympic_medal_counts.xls.  --SFoskett 15:36, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Update!
This page needs flags badly, as this page is the model for all of the others! Please also add the medal icons instead of the names "Gold", etc. See 2006 Winter Olympics medal count as a guide. The Summer Olympics page also needs this revision! --Jared 00:01, 17 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Flags added. Sam Vimes 21:49, 17 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Added medal icons. —bbatsell ¿?  00:43, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

The IOC does not officially recognoze any medal tallies or standings.
It must be mentioned that the IOC "does not officially recognize national medal totals, nor recommend using one way of assigning medals by country over another. The original Olympic charter forbade a medal count that included a ranking per country". All medal counts published by the media are unofficial; so is the one above. (I have an article to prove)

we should point this out.

Which means the claim at the beggining of this article is FALSE. IOC does not use any system.

A MAJOR editing in every olympic medal count is needed. particularly this one,

"These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a country (in this context a country is an entity represented by a National Olympic Committee). The number of silvers is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This follows the system used by the IOC???, IAAF and BBC.


 * Sorry, but you're wrong. Check this page out:  http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/IDF/MDL/MDL_Big.html


 * That's the offical site for the 2006 Olympics. Now, read the bottom of that page.  It says the following:  "The Olympic rules lay out that the Final Rank should be based on the overall number of gold medals won."  King nothing 2 09:29, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Gold medal first is silly
In North America, we use the total number of medals first, followed by ranking in terms of gold and then silver. If we're doing a total all-time medal count (and not just a gold-medal count), then it makes sense to list the countries in order of total medals. That way someone can easily find out which country has won the most medals at first glance, not just which country has won the most golds. 70.49.125.45 05:07, 21 February 2006 (UTC)


 * What is really silly is to count medal totals.This gives a bronze medal the same value as a gold medal.


 * I hate to break this to you, but North America isn't the only place in the world. We go by total medals, but other regions of the world don't.  On top of that, the Olympic Committee uses the "rank by number of golds" system (check my edit in the above section for proof).  King nothing 2 09:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Gold medal count
Norway, not Germany, won the gold medal count in 2002. The disqualification of Spanish cross country skier Muehlegg, who won three golds, gave Norway two additional medals to reach 13. Many statistics on this are wrong since Muehlegg didn't lose two of his golds until 2003. See the article on the 2002 Winter olympics. Shaggy

"Combined totals" makes no sense
I don't like the idea of combining past and present countries into one rank (for example, the Soviet Union + CIS + Russia, and Germany + E. Germany + W. Germany).

Is that really fair? The Soviet Union split up into 15 different countries. Why should Russia be the only ones who get to be ranked with them? I don't see the point of combining medal counts of past nations with present nations just because they occupied the same land. They are different countries. The Soviet Union is not the same as Russia, people. I say every country, past and present, should be ranked separately, period.

I should also mention that the medal count page for the Summer Olympics has no "combined totals" at all, and uses the format that I am suggesting right now. Having the Summer and Winter Olympics medal count pages using two different formats is very unprofessional if you ask me. It doesn't say much for the credibility of Wikipedia.

If I don't get any responses to this, I'm probably going to go ahead and make the changes myself. It's bugging me. King nothing 2 10:08, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Agree with you regarding Soviet Union & Russia, but CIS/Unified Team should definitely be included in Totals with the Soviet Union, but Russia should be a separate entity on these lists. In fact, the only way to truly allow these medals to be attributed to Russia would be to go through all the medals won by the Soviet Union/CIS during its years in the Olympics and where possible - allocate medals to the successor countries based on place of birth of all medal-winners. Most would probably go to Russia, but they would also go to boosting Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia etc. In team sports, in which participants were from more than 1 post-USSR country - then that would be a team medal and could only be attributed to the former entity (Soviet Union) - but individual (and team medals won by people from the same successor country) could be properly allocated.

Only thing against that is that it would be a lifetime's work trying to track down all these places of birth and would take a very, very long time. Anyone game?

In regards to West Germany/East Germany/Germany though, they are all parts of the same country. It was separated by Cold War politics for 40 years, but IMO you have to include all these German medals in any combined list. If you don't it's as if you're saying no German medals won between World War 2 and 1992 Albertville games count - which is ridiculous. - Julian from (Australia)


 * The CIS and the Soviet Union were two different entities. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 into 15 different nations.  The CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) was comprised of only 12 countries at that time.  So you really can't just hand over the CIS's winnings to the Soviet Union.


 * And about your idea to give Soviet medals to present day nations based on the athletes' birthplaces: I don't agree with that.  This list is for historical purposes.  We are supposed to show how many medals each nation has won, and where they rank.  If we were to give all the medals won by past nations to present day nations, then the past nations wouldn't even show up in the list.  What if someone wants to know how many medals the Soviet Union has won, or how many East Germany has won?  I know you think allocating the medals that way is the fair thing to do, but it just seems like a perversion of history to me. King nothing 2 11:29, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
 * No problem: break them down in a footnote. 84.61.120.193 14:20, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

This combining of medals for USSR/CIS/Russia and all the Germanies has been debated on the Olympic conventions talk page and roundly defeated. Could we please stop implementing this as it flies in the face of all that Wikipedia is about, and the Olympic spirit too I might add.--Kalsermar 19:29, 27 February 2006 (UTC)