I always thought a Gold medal meant more than a Bronze medal. Not in America it seems.

Caught this via a comment on Radio 5 and then the Guardian blog. It seems the American media have decided to play around with the established way of presenting the medal table at the Olympics. Compare & Contrast time:

Figure 1: The BBC Medal table:



Figure 2: The medal table from NBC Sports:



Notice the difference? (Aside from a slight difference in numbers due to screen grabs at different times that is)

The USA appear to be on top on the NBC medals table, yet they've only got 26 gold medals ads opposed to China's 45. It seems the US media have decided that a Bronze is equal to a Silver or a Gold medal and are working out the medals table by total medals won, which puts the US in front with 80, compared to China's 79.

It's just silly and childish frankly.