It was important for the US to regain its lost position at the top of the medals table. China was perhaps not too worried about retaining its domination, as it sent only 396 athletes for the London Games.
It was a matter of national pride when China pooled all its resources to win the maximum gold medals when it hosted the Games in splendid style at home in Beijing, but it was back to the regular pace of plucking the gold medals this time.
Britain overtook Russia to the third place as widely predicted, with 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze medals.
It won five gold medals more than Russia which had a better total of 82 to 65 by the host. It had won 19-13-15 in Beijing.
The US topped the table with 104 medals, 46 gold, 29 silver and 29 bronze. It had added 10 gold to the 36 it won in the last edition, in which it had a total of 110. As expected, the Americans dominated in athletics and swimming, winning 60 of their medals, including 25 gold.
China won 38 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze medals, as compared to 51-21-28 in Beijing. It was just above the 32-17-14 that China had won in Athens, by its high standards. After the high a dip was expected as China was not going about the task of collecting the medals with the same drive as the US this time. Rio may be different. Russsia won 24 gold, 25 silver and 33 bronze as compared to 23-21-29 the last time.
Korea jumped ahead of Germany and Australia for the fifth place with 13-8-7, as compared to 13-10-8 the last time.
So, the Germans slipped to the sixth place and the Australians slipped badly to the 10th spot with 7-16-12. Kenya had a big fall from the 13th spot to 28th as it could collect only two gold, four silver and five bronze medals as compared to 6-4-4 the last time.
India was joint 55th among 79 countries that won medals. In terms of the total number of medals it was joint 34th.
India was 50th last time with a gold and two bronze medals, as compared to two silver and four bronze this time. A gold medal would have pulled India to the 31st spot.
