US broadcasters change World Aquatics Championships medal tally to show US on top
US broadcasters change World Aquatics Championships medal tally to show US on top, despite less gold medals than Australia
Eagle-eyed fans have noticed a humiliating image detail that proves America can’t handle the truth about Australia’s swimming dominance.'
The Americans have shown they can’t handle losing after an eagle-eyed sportswriter noticed a peculiar change to the way the medal tally at this week’s 2023 Aquatics World Championships in Fukuoka was being reported on.
With the event being one of world swimming’s premier events and one year out from the 2024 Paris Olympics, it is hugely important as a gauge of where nations are at ahead of Olympic years.
With the Australian swim team the Dolphins, in the midst of a historic golden generation of talent, including the record-breaking likes of Mollie O’Callaghan, Ariane Titmus and the resurgence of experienced male talent like Cameron McEvoy, the benchmark Americans have had a run for their money in Japan this week.
Amid the Dolphins’ dominating performance in the pool, swimming journalist Braden Keith noticed an interesting shift in the coverage of the Championships by America’s broadcaster of the event NBC.
The American graphic appeared to show the medal tally in order of total medals, rather than the traditional ordering of gold-silver-bronze, which kept Team USA on top of the tally, rather than the Australians.
Keith noted that NBC had begun the event using the traditional ordering, but then switched to total medals when it became apparent that the Americans kept losing out to the Australians.
The Australians had 10 gold medals at the end of day six of the swimming events, with the Americans on three.
Americans have missed out on gold medals to Aussies in Fukuoka in ten different events so far across both men’s and women’s disciplines, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Today, NBC and USA Swimming officially waved the white flag at the end of finals by changing their medals table graphic to a total medals sort,” Keith wrote on Twitter with a photo of the tally.
“That wasn’t their approach at the beginning of the meet. The total medal sort bothers me far less than the “using whichever sort we think we’re going to win does.
“Sports aren’t fun if the same team wins all the time. I understand that people love the home country ‘winning’, but there’s room for a redemption story once in a while too.
“Bigger question is how are the tables being sorted behind closed doors? Is the result going to be brushed away or addressed and learned from?”
Fans were scathing of the cheeky move from American broadcasters, with Melbourne artist Callum Shaw saying “even when (the Americans) are not number one, they can confidently rely on the fact that most of their population isn’t data literate.”
Another fan noted that the Americans have traditionally dominated swimming at the Olympics, topping the medal tally at every single Olympics dating back to 1988.
America has not finished outside the top two in the swimming medal tally since 1936, excluding the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.
Fans have to look back to the 1956 Melbourne Games to find the only time Australia has ever topped the Olympic tally.
Despite this, fans are quietly optimistic, with freestyler Cameron McEvoy hailing the dawning of a new era.
Australian swimmers have claimed ten golds and broken four world records in five days of competition so far in Japan, leaving nearest rivals China and the United States trailing in their wake.
