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There is no standard method for measuring a country’s relative success in the Olympics.

Olympic standings are often presented in terms of medal count which typically leaves out over half of the participating countries. Plus, there is no consensus on whether to rank countries by the number of gold medals or the total number of medals. In OlympicRank.com, I have attempted to come up with a comprehensive approach that ranks ALL countries. I award points to the top eight competitors in each event, which corresponds to the number of diploma recipients, the number of participants in the final swimming and dash events, and the “elite eight” in events that use a tournament format.

When multiple countries share placings, the points are split, and the placings are averaged. For example, if two countries share 3rd place in an event (which is standard procedure in Boxing, Wrestling, and Martial Arts) each country gets 20 points, and is considered to have a placing of 3½.

A country’s rank is determined primarily by the number of points it earns. Rankings of countries that wind up with the same number of points are based on their highest placing in any event and, if necessary, by their 2nd highest placing, 3rd highest placing, etc. Finally, if two countries have the same number of points, and have achieved the exact same placings through different events, the higher ranking goes to the country that has participated in events with the highest cumulative number of entries.