“How embarrassing”, “What a powerhouse USA swimming is” - Netizens express mixed reactions to adding ‘Total’ in NBC’s points table

Netizens went berserk on Sunday when NBC and USA Swimming modified their points table by adding a ‘total’ medals column. On June 30, the 2023 World Aquatics Championships concluded its 15-day tournament with its last event Men’s and Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay. As soon as both the results from the respective events were announced, netizens noticed a change in NBC’s points table.

On Sunday, the men’s and women’s teams of the USA won the final event of the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. At the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay, Team USA outshined other teams with its impressive time frame of 3:27.20. On the other other hand, the women’s team achieved the gold medal clocking 3:52.08.

Usually, after the completion of events each day, the NBC channel displayed a points table with Gold, Silver, and Bronze columns. However, on the final day, they added another 'Total' column to their table.

Pointing out the change in the graphics, a Twitter user named Braden Keith shared on his Twitter profile a picture of the points table of the NBC channel.

“Today, NBC and USA Swimming officially waived the white flag at the end of finals by changing their medals table graphic to a total medals sort. #fukuoka2023,” he wrote.

In no time, netizens began to mock the American channel for changing the graphics in order to cover up the country’s lower gold medal count.

“That’s not correct. The leaderboard starts with the most Gold medals. The US is just embarrassing itself on this leaderboard. Shedding tears of laughter”

However, another user stated a fact explaining the reason behind the change in the graphics,

"Sports journalists In most countries sort the medal table by total golds, but the practice in the United States is to sort by total medals. It has been this way for quite some time. The IOC and the Associated Press take no position on the difference."

Here are more reactions from netizens:

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Which team won the most gold medals at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships?

Team USA at Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships: Swimming - Day 8

Team USA won nearly 38 medals at the World Championships with seven gold, 20 silver and 11 bronze, as per the report by Olympics.com. However, Australia, that amassed a total of 25 medals throughout the competition, turned out to be the nation with 13 gold medals. Besides that, it had seven silver and five bronze medals.

After the 1956 Olympic Games, this is the second time Australia has beaten USA in the running of most gold medals.

Nevertheless, swimmers from both USA and Australia have been awarded as best swimmers of the World Aquatics Championships 2023. America’s Leon Marchand and Australia’s Kaylee McKeown were chosen for the great honor.