Where did you see an official IOC medal count? I was just on the IOC website and they did not have a medal count. I did check French, English, Australian and Japanese sites and all of them except the Japanese ones had the ranking as you said with more golds first. The Japanese site had it by total medals as well. I can tell you that as long as I can remember that has been how its done. Even for the Winter Olympics where the US is nowhere near as successful. It was also done that way when the Soviets were still around and that was probably the main reason, to show we could compete with the Russians during the cold war.I am not in the media but I can say that it is probably done to highlight the accomplishments of American athletes.

However, there is nothing wrong with that. All the sites I visited had special sections devoted to their countries athletes and how they were doing and that is great. They should be celebrated. Personally, and I am only speaking for me (because for me to speak on behalf of ALL American Sports fans would be stupid since I don't know what they are all thinking) I think just making the Olympics is something to be celebrated..and if you medal? Absolutely. It may just be a Bronze in some little sport no one cares about but you still get the le of "Olympic Medalist" for the rest of your life. That is something special. So really does it matter that the US does it different than anyone else?