How to Determine Medal Rank

Sa Jae-hyouk bites his gold medal of the men’s 77 kg of the weightlifting competition in Beijing, Wednesday. / Yonhap

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

The Beijing Summer Olympics are halfway done and medal tables are everywhere.

South Korean sports officials have expressed excitement over the country's six gold medals, remaining on course to achieve the goal of 10 golds and a top 10 finish in the medal standings.

But what really constitutes a top 10 finish? Should countries be ranked by golds or combined medals?

This question has no clear answer ― the International Olympic Committee doesn't even keep an official medal count to prevent compromising the ``Olympic spirit."

Sports, however, are all about separating the men from the boys, so this debate is usually taken more seriously than others.

Predictably, South Korea fully backs the gold standard, as its athletes specialize in a limited number of events like archery and taekwondo, but couldn't pray for a medal in the hardware-heavy track and field.

Most Korean newspapers and Internet sites rank countries by gold medals, and South Korea ranked fourth Friday in that category.

In comparison, major U.S. sports sites like ESPN (www.espn.com), CNN Sports Illustrated (www.cnnsi.com) or Yahoo! Sports (sports.yahoo.com) rank by overall medal count.

So Korean Internet sites rank South Korea behind No. 3 Germany, which has eight gold medals.

American sites still put South Korea at No. 4 but behind Australia, which has five golds but more medals overall. Germany is pushed all the way down to eighth.

``You gotta admit that people care about gold medals the most, as they await the berth of an international champion among their countrymen, and that should be naturally reflected in the standings," said a Korean Olympic Committee spokesman.

Others say, however, that standings based on gold medals discount the overall efforts of a country's athletes.

If U.S. swimming god Michael Phelps was a country by himself, he would be tied for fourth with South Korea with six golds.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr

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