Final 2012 Olympics Medal Standings

(Baonghean)Four years after having to cede the overall top spot to China, the US sports delegation reclaimed the number 1 position by winning a total of 46 gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, surpassing China by 8 gold medals.

Hosts Great Britain completed the most successful Olympics in 100 years by winning 29 gold medals in third place, while for the first time in history, Russia (the successor to the former Soviet Union) was knocked out of the top three.

Not only leading in the number of gold medals, the US also leads in the total number of medals with 104 of all kinds, thereby not only demonstrating its position as a leading power but also showing even development.

Great Britain wins big with 29 gold medals (Source: Getty Images)

The US team dominated both the two most basic sports of the Olympic movement, athletics (9 gold medals) and swimming (16 gold medals), and also won gold medals in popular team sports such as soccer (women) and basketball (both men and women).

Meanwhile, despite a decline in the number of gold medals compared to Beijing 2008 (winning 51 gold medals compared to 38 in London 2012), the Chinese sports delegation is still considered to have had a successful Olympics. China not only dominated their strong sports such as badminton (5 gold medals), table tennis (4), diving (6) or gymnastics (5) but also showed great progress on the green track (5 gold medals, second only to the US).

Great Britain also had a hugely successful Games, winning 29 gold medals out of a total of 65, 10 more than four years ago. Britain continued to show its strength in cycling (7 gold medals) and boxing (3) and also made great strides in athletics with Somali-born middle-distance star Mo Farah (5,000 and 10,000m gold medals).

Those advances helped Britain usurp the Russian sports delegation, even though in terms of total medals, Russia was superior (82 medals, but only 24 gold).

During the first days of the Olympics, Russia was constantly out of the top 10, and only in the final days of competition (winning 15 gold medals in the last 3 days) did they break away when their strong sports entered the finals such as athletics, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, wrestling, and boxing.

Among the disappointing sports delegations at London 2012 were Australia and Japan, requiring them to invest even more in the upcoming Olympics.

The host country of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Brazil, also had a disappointing Olympics with only 3 gold medals, the most regrettable of which was the defeat in the men's football final.

Among the countries considered to be the biggest in the world, India's case was the saddest when it failed to win any gold medal, with the defeat of famous wrestler Sulshil Kumar on the final day of competition.

On the contrary, many sports delegations caused big surprises, such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea when it won 4 gold medals, including 3 in weightlifting.

During the 16 days of competition at the 2012 Olympics, a total of 302 gold medals were awarded, of which 54 teams won at least 1 gold medal, including very new names such as Uganda, Venezuela and Grenada. The home country of the Olympic movement, Greece, only had 2 bronze medals.

A total of 85 sports delegations won at least one bronze medal, including four Southeast Asian countries. Thailand was the most successful, winning two silver medals (boxing and weightlifting) and one bronze medal (weightlifting).

Malaysia and Indonesia each won 1 silver and 1 bronze medal, while Singapore had 2 bronze medals.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT