American media may put the United States at the top of the Beijing 2008 Olympic medal tally, but the rest of the world would tell you otherwise.
Of course the China Daily tally has China on top with the most golds, but the BBC, CBC and most other international media also report China first and the United States second. Australia may be the exception with its comical per-capita tally. But in the end, America is the odd man out with its total medals tally because everyone else is focused on the number of golds.
The International Olympic Committee has no official medal tally because the Games shouldn't be about winning or losing, but bringing the world together through competitive sport -- right?
I love the United States just as much as any other American but, come on, can we really say we won when China had 15 more golds than us? Of course winning silver and bronze is a great feat, but the gold is really what everyone is striving for and it should count for something more in the medal tally.
I'd like to think we're all proud of our athletes' performance in the Beijing Games no matter how many gold, silver and bronze medals they rack up. So let's be good sports and just admit that we're No. 2 this time around.