And the Chinese nearly delivered on their goal of overtaking the Americans atop the medal standings.
China’s haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. Fielding athletes groomed since childhood in sports academies, it won medals in 25 different sports, including its first ever in sailing, beach volleyball and field hockey.
Not since 1936, when Nazi Germany prevailed at the Berlin Olympics, had a country other than the U.S. or the Soviet Union/Russia led the gold medal list.
The United States trailed well behind the Chinese in golds with 36, the first time since 1992 it didn’t lead the category. But the Americans did break their own mark for total medals in a non-boycotted Olympics; they won 110 in all, two more than their previous high set in 1992 and 10 ahead of China’s overall tally this year.
If there was a prominent loser at the games, it was Russia, whose team was deprived of 10 athletes due to doping accusations. The Russians finished a distant third in both gold medals, with 23, and overall medals with 72 - down from 27 and 92 four years ago in Athens.
The United States was disappointed by its boxing team (one bronze medal) and a lack of golds by its sprinters, but was delighted by breakthroughs in lesser sports such as fencing, as well as by the historic eight golds for record-smashing swimmer Michael Phelps.
“Both on the field of play and off, this will go down as one of the greatest performances ever for a United States Olympic Team,” spokesman Darryl Seibel said Sunday.
