How Should Countries Be Compared in Olympic Medal Tables?

[Campus reveiw]

When people ask which country has the most Olympic medals, there is an important question behind the statistic:



What exactly should be counted?

Total medals provide one comparison, but gold medals provide another.

There are also differences between:

Summer and Winter Olympics
Individual Olympic editions
All-time historical totals
Gold-only rankings
Total medal counts

The answer can therefore change depending on the dataset and time period.

A useful country-level Olympic medal guide is available here:

https://thecampusreview.com/geography/most-olympic-medals-by-country/