U.S. Suddenly Leads Medal Table After Day Six, According To NBC

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

When watching the domestic broadcast of day six of the 2023 World Championships one might have thought the United States had one heck of a day, suddenly appearing atop the overall medal table.

NBC’s coverage decided to change up its graphic and sort the medals tonight by total number instead of the traditional ranking by number of golds. That put the stars n’ stripes ahead of both Australia and China, even though those respective nations carry more gold, especially on the Australian side.

We reviewed the potential of the United States to catch Australia’s golden haul here.

 

Tonight, Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan made history by becoming the first woman to top both the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle podiums. Teammate Zac Stubblety-Cook also claimed some hardware, securing silver in the 200m breast while the men’s 4x200m free relay bagged bronze.

As for China, 24-year-old Qin Haiyang made history of his own, becoming the first swimmer to ever have swept all three distances of a discipline at a single World Championsihps. Qin ripped a new World Record of 2:05.48 to win the men’s 200m breast.

The United States saw Ryan Murphy snag 200m back silver while Kate Douglass achieved the same result in the women’s 200m breaststroke event.

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Andrew
1 year ago

China won most medals at 2013 Aquatics world championships so guess they was best team that year not USA.

^Going by NBC logic anyway…

In my opinion Gold medals are worth far more than the others it shows true Greatness. And who best is even with unfair population or Talent pool.

Andrew
1 year ago

It’s fine NBC can Celebrate the most 2nd-3rd finishes Australia will Celebrate being the Best in the world with 13 Beautiful Gold 🥇.

JayR
1 year ago

When the modern Olympics were first staged, in Athens in 1896, there were no silver and no bronze medals. In other words, you either won or you lost. Ditto the 1900 Olympics in Paris. It was not until the third modern Olympics, in St. Louis in 1904, that silver and bronze medals were introduced as consolation prizes. Nor is there any record in the ancient Olympics that losers were honored in any way beyond the recognition that they participated. To count success in elite international sporting competition by anything other than winning is not only illogical but also anti-historical.

Sydney
1 year ago

As usual sore loser USA. Nothing new.

JayR
1 year ago

Countries should be listed by gold medals won. Silver and bronze medals are given for losing (by definition)! This was universally understood and accepted until recent decades when this total medal nonsense emerged.

Tmswm
1 year ago

R I G H T 🙄
Reality: US got their clocks cleaned

Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

I will never understand the devaluation of silver and bronze medals when it comes to the “official” and “majority” view of medal table standings. To rank by gold medals only totally diminishes the import of the other medals. Try telling those athletes who earned silver and bronze medals, along with their sponsoring countries, trainers, families and supporting communities that those medals don’t count. It’s absurd.
If gold is the only medal to count, then do away with the podium or the count of silver and bronze. Even saying that sounds incredibly worthless which is what you are doing to those medal winners by not including them in the “official” standings. If you want to have separate categories, then do… Read more »

Admin
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

The reality is that neither the gold medal count nor the total medal count, on their own, is a perfect representation of success at a meet.

That being said…I think that most would agree here that Australia “won” the meet. When the gold medal count is gapped that big, that’s a win.

Steve
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

Should be a weighted points total. Gold 4 silver-3 bronze-2 points. The End

2ndnatlc
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

Yep, then US wins 69-57 Aus. Since when does silver and bronze not count. “If you haven’t won, then you’ve lost” is a toxic sports culturalism

Barry Manilow
Reply to  2ndnatlc
1 year ago

A question if I may, DID Australia come first MORE times at this meet THAN the USA? and by what quantity did it come fist? Arwe you that mathematiclly moronic?

Barry Manilow
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

3 2 an 1 is more in keeping with the status, silver should not rate as 3/4 and bronze certainly not as 50%

Aigues
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

You cannot seriously count bronze in a meeting where a country cannot present more than two swimmers in each event.

And 4-3-2 for 1-2-3 places clearly leads to give also 1pt four the 4th place.

Joe
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

Silver and bronze medals do count, when golds are the same, the next criteria is number of silvers and so on, this problem comes only when the USA is not on top of the gold medal count

cooper twine
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

I would take 10 golds, 5 silvers and a bronze over 3 golds 13 silvers and 9 bronzes any day of the week because like it or not coming first means significantly more than second and third because you are the world champ.

Lloyd Cooper
Reply to  cooper twine
1 year ago

Under what I concede is the prevailing, if entirely ill advised view, the US is currently 3rd with 4 golds, although the table incongruously lists 31 total medals, which includes the apparently worthless silver and bronze medals earned. That puts the US behind China with 4 golds and 13 total. Those 16 silver medals won by the US are indeed meaningless and I’m sure China would never trade 2 silvers for 16, given that those medals count for nothing in this system. I have learned 13 is greater than 31 so I thank this scoring system for broadening my horizons.
Oh yeah, congratulations to Italy for winning the European Youth Olympic Festival. Well done. I do feel sorry for… Read more »

Barry Manilow
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

Silver and Bronze MAY count, but by your definition you want them count on the same level as GOLD? absolutely absurd !

Maia
Reply to  Lloyd Cooper
1 year ago

By your logic, “overall excellence” applies to EVERY athlete that competes, not just medal winners. That therefore means whichever country sends the most athletes to the Olympics, wins… and that would be USA. How convenient.

The real solution is to stop counting at all.

Carlo
1 year ago

They did this after china topped the medal tally in 2008.Nothing new here.

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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