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.

Tonight Usain Bolt will try to become the first person to ever win the 100 meter and 200 meter in consecutive Olympic Games. But before he does it, he’s going to have to defeat his teammate, Yohan Blake. Blake has beaten him twice at the Jamaican Nationals for the same event; and is typically much faster, even though it was Bolt who set the world record of 19.19 and the Olympic record of 19.30. And let’s not forget, after what we saw when Bolt ran the 100-meter on Monday, that cold hard determination.

Bolt has already set the stage between Blake and himself for tonight’s event. “I’ve told Yohan that the 200 meters is going to be different because the 200 is my pet event. I’m not going to let him beat me again.” But it’s not a matter of giving Blake anything. While Bolt has had some issues with his back and a tight hamstring, he seemed to more than overcome them when he ran earlier this week. Still, Blake will be coming up from behind, and that could be the nail in Bolt’s coffin once again between these two runners.

It’s happened before. It was during the trials in Jamaica that Bolt held the lead, only to have Blake take it away and outrun him. If that doesn’t happen though and Bolt wins, Blake may have no one to blame for Bolt’s grit except for himself. “He (Yohan Blake) said, ‘Usain, this is an Olympic year. Wake up,” said Usain. “So I’m happy and I’m grateful for that moment because after that I refocused and I got my head together and I got my head in the game.”

Sometimes you take great risk and great gains are soon to come. And if you can take great risks at the right time and pull them off successfully, you can be a hero. This is what went behind the thinking of the men’s 400 relay swim at the Aquatics Centre in London last night. What we saw in turn though, was what happened when risk goes awry. Everything looks like it’s all going to pan out in the beginning, until it all starts to slowly crumble. Eventually, victory slips right through the cracks. But those to blame for the U.S. defeat in the 400-meter freestyle relay on Sunday weren’t in the water but rather, on the sidelines coaching.

For the men’s U.S. swimming team, Gregg Troy had Nathan Adrian start things off for the great speed and head start that Adrian could give the team. Michael Phelps was next; and after a disappointing showing on Saturday at the 400 IM, it was he who overcame the rumors and performed at the level people know him for.

Jones was third in line, and after having to recover his reputation from a horrible loss at the 2008 Olympics against Beijing. Jones performed extremely well along with the rest of his team, saying afterwards that he was “really happy with my effort. I didn’t do my part in 2008.” Everything looked good for the American team, and then the final swimmer, Ryan Lochte was up. And the sad fact of the matter was, that he shouldn’t have been there. He just wasn’t ready; and Troy shouldn’t have put him in there.

Lochte has swam the 100-meter before, but not much; and he had never performed the part of the anchor before in the 400 freestyle relay during a major national or international event. The Olympic stadium was not the place to do it. The Australian to his

Lochte started off very well, looking like he was actually sprinting through the first fifty yards. But that’s exactly what did him in at the end. “I over-swam the first 50,” Lochte said after the race, “which hurt me in the last 50.”

But while Lochte was putting the blame on himself, coach Gregg Troy was also owning up to some mistakes. “I knew on the first 25 he was in trouble,” Troy said afterwards. “Kind of a coaching error.”

But, Troy was also asked what he would change, should his team be able to swim the same relay. “No,” he admitted. “I think we probably would’ve swam the same relay.”