Throughout the entire Olympics, it was China and the United States battling it out for highest in the medal tally. But on Wednesday, Day 12 of the 2012 London Olympics, the United States overtook the top rank of the medal tally and from there on, athletes just continued adding to the tally. The States ended up with a total of 46 gold medals, and 104 medals in total. China on the other hand, was a fairly close second with 38 golds and 87 in total.

Of course there were many memorable moments.  Several of them were brought by Michael Phelps, who not only won three gold medals, but also retired at the age of 27 as the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 22 Olympic medals.

And there was also the U.S. women’s beach volleyball duo, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings. May-Treanor will also make the London Olympics her last and she too, has made history. Along with Walsh-Jennings, they are the first team in history to win three consecutive Olympic golds in volleyball.

Gabby Douglas had a disappointing last week in the Olympics, but she started off with a bang. One of the first Americans to make history during the 2012 London Olympics, Douglas won in the women’s all-around competition, and was the first African-American to ever do so.

But it wasn’t all during the first week, or even week and a half, that the States dominated in London. The athletes continued on to gold right up until the last minute, with the U.S. men’s basketball team taking gold over Spain yesterday. Just the day before, the U.S. women’s basketball team had started the gold streak, taking the win over France.

In fact, Saturday was a very golden day for the United States. Allyson Felix picked up her third medal of these Games in the 4 x 400 relay; along with Francena McCorory; DeeDee Trotter; and Sanya Richards-Ross, who had already picked up her own individual gold in the 400 meter.

Following the United States and China on the medal tally was Russia, who will host the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. Great Britain took fourth place with a total of 29 golds, and a total of 65 medals. Not to mention that for 16 days straight they, along with the athletes, put on a pretty good show.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 10:48 am and is filed under Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.