Which do you care more for in the Olympics? Total medals or golds?

Neither individually. I take scoring such that gold counts for more than silver, and silver more than bronze. But also the other two medals do mean something. Therefore take gold medals for a country, multiply it by 5, silvers multiple by 3, and bronze by 1, and then add them together. This gives the total score, and this is what I care most about. I do this because golds aren't the only thing that matter, but overall medal count doesn't work either because a gold obviously means the most, and silver more than a bronze. I think this is how scoring should be done by all countries.

Neither. I watch for the performances. The medals are just the rewards for a job well done!

Number of Gold Medals,of course...The number of "bests" matters the most in games of the scale of Olympics,though any medal won is of incredible pride for the participants and the nations.

Gold, these are competitive games, all athletes want gold, it means they are the best. In every event (World Cup, World Series, NBA Finals, Superbowl, etc) the winner takes all, in fact most people a couple of years later can't remember who was second place, forget about third. Let's put it another way, would Phelp's be so great if what he had gotten were 8 silver or 8 bronze medals?