Which country is doing best at the Winter Olympics? It might depend on who’s counting medals — and how.
As of Monday at 3:33 p.m. Eastern time, Norway stood atop the official Olympic medal table, which sorts nations by number of gold medals by default. That approach is common in most of the world, with silver and bronze used only to break ties.
By another measure, Italy leads because it has the most medals overall (nine, at last count). Publications in the U.S. often take this approach.
Which way of counting is superior?