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Vice Blog

BEIJING - WHO WON THE OLYMPICS?

Before the Olympics started my buddy and I placed a wager on which country would come top of the medals table. He bet that the USA would win simply because they always win by miles. I bet that China would be No.1 because they have home advantage. Now we're nearing the end of the games and the US and China are neck-and-neck. Thing is, not everyone is in agreement about how the tables should be ordered…

Most of the world calculate the rankings according to the number of golds (China wins). But the contrary Americans determine it by overall medals (US wins). However, a whole series of medals tables have emerged that weigh the standings by population (Jamaica wins), by GDP (North Korea wins), by region (Europe wins), or by the amount of fawning, jingoistic attention they can heap on their medal winners (Britain storms it).