The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially declare a single country to be an overall champion of each Olympic Games, although the IOC does publish a medal count for each Olympic Games, in which countries are ranked by most gold medals earned, followed by most silver medals earned, followed by most bronze medals earned. However, the U.S. broadcast rights holder for the Olympic Games, NBC, ranks countries based on total medals earned, followed by most gold medals earned, followed by most silver medals earned. This can result in discrepancies in which country is at the top of the medal count, as happened in the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics: in both instances, the United States was at the top of the NBC medal count, but the host country (China in 2008, Canada in 2010) was at the top of the IOC medal count. However, the traditional medal count isn't actually a great indicator of how well countries perform in the Olympics for a number of reasons....
Sports and politics from a progressive perspective