The 2008 Olympics

<p>Can anybody explain the whole medal count thing? China is obviously dominating in gold medals but they are behind in overall medals. I would think that overall medals is the deciding factor of who "wins" the Olympics.</p>

<p>Overall</a> Medal Standings - The official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games</p>

<p>You could at this moment have 50 gold medals and be in 1st place but 4th place in overall medals.</p>

<p>Another way to figure it out is give 5 points for golds, 3 to silvers, and 1 to bronze, and add up those total points. As of right now, we have 317, China has 330. But, we do sort of win with overall medals, I agree that that's the most important win. But the points system has some validity to it too. But I don't know for sure haha</p>