Eye of the Beholder

It is often said that history is written by the victorious. It seems like a rather sobering realisation, given the way our history textbooks portray their version as fact, rather than emphasise the context and perspective within which that version was written.

Anyway, I've been following the Olympics mostly via the official website maintained by China and ESPN (obviously American). It amuses me that, in the midst of the battle for sporting supremacy, there is another battle to write the sporting history books.

Case in point - portrayal of medal tallies:

China (1st, in terms of gold medals):


USA (1st, in terms of total medals):


Go figure.