China alters medal count to include Hong Kong, Taiwan to unofficially claim gold medal dominance over US

Team USA dominated the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning both the overall medal count and gold medal tally, but Chinese state media has altered those figures in a way to assert itself as the gold medal leader.

Images from the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, and China Central Television have circulated on Twitter this week showing an altered medal count that includes hardware taken home by Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to multiple reports.

The deceptive ploy improved China’s tally from 38 gold, 32 silver, and 18 bronze medals (88 overall) to 41, 37, and 27, respectively, for an overall count of 106 medals.

The top 5️⃣ in the medal table from the #TokyoOlympics! pic.twitter.com/aZieHc1Ftq

— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2021

By comparison, the U.S. earned 39 gold, 41 silver, and 33 bronze for an overall medal count of 113.

Under the International Olympic Committee rules Hong Kong and Taiwan, referred to as Chinese Taipei, compete independently as National Olympic Committees (NOC). – READ MORE