Asian Games 2014 Medal Tally: Final Count and Biggest Winners

The 2016 Summer Olympics are the most anticipated international event on the horizon, but the 2014 Asian Games were one of the first real precursor events that fans of athletics could get excited about.

Saturday was the final day of competition. After 15 days of intense battle, it was clear that the Chinese dominance of the medal tally was the biggest storyline of the festivities. The international superpower racked up 342 total medals, over 100 more than second-place finisher Korea.

Here is the final medal count for the 2014 Asian Games and the biggest winners from the event.

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	151	108	83	342
2	Korea	79	71	84	234
3	Japan	47	76	77	200
4	Kazakhstan	28	23	33	84
5	Iran	21	18	18	57
6	Thailand	12	7	28	47
7	DPR Korea	11	11	14	36
8	India	11	9	37	57
9	Chinese Taipei	10	18	23	51
10	Qatar	10	0	4	14
11	Uzbekistan	9	14	21	44
12	Bahrain	9	6	4	19
13	Hong Kong	6	12	24	42
14	Malaysia	5	14	14	33
15	Singapore	5	6	13	24
16	Mongolia	5	4	12	21
17	Indonesia	4	5	11	20
18	Kuwait	3	5	4	12
19	Saudi Arabia	3	3	1	7
20	Myanmar	2	1	1	4
21	Vietnam	1	10	25	36
22	Philippines	1	3	11	15
23	Pakistan	1	1	3	5
23	Tajikistan	1	1	3	5
25	Iraq	1	0	3	4
25	United Arab Emirates	1	0	3	4
27	Sri Lanka	1	0	1	2
28	Cambodia	1	0	0	1
29	Macau	0	3	4	7
30	Kyrgyzstan	0	2	4	6
31	Jordan	0	2	2	4
32	Turkmenistan	0	1	5	6
33	Bangladesh	0	1	2	3
33	Laos	0	1	2	3
35	Afghanistan	0	1	1	2
35	Lebanon	0	1	1	2
37	Nepal	0	0	1	1

Medal count via Sports.NDTV.com.

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

2014 Asian Games Biggest Winners

The biggest winners of the Asian Games were the Chinese. With 151 gold medals, 108 silver medals and 83 bronze medals, there was no nation as dominant as China at this year’s events.

The Chinese team proved just how good it was on the final day when the table tennis final featured Team China stars Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong squaring off with supremacy on the line. The nation was utterly dominant in the biggest events, and that momentum will be important as the nation prepares for the 2016 Olympics.

Another event the Chinese have dominated in the past is diving. With a gold medal in all 10 events, the team lived up to the lofty expectations. China also dominated the rowing events, the shooting events and swimming events en route to a message-sending performance.

The Associated Press talked about the dominance of China during the Games, via ESPN.com:

"

China proved to be well ahead of the rest of the region in the pool, on the track and in an unmatchable variety of the other sports that are included in the games, which feature everything from standard Olympic events to regional specialties such as kabbadi -- a rough, tag-like game that is popular on the subcontinent -- to southeast Asian favorite sepak takraw, an acrobatic game that resembles volleyball but is played primarily with the feet.

"

For those skeptics who claim China only won as many medals as it did due to population size, Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press reports the contrary:

The Games didn’t come without some controversy, though, as Zhang Wenxiu was stripped of her gold in women's hammer throw after failing a post-event dope test:

While many fans will turn their focus to the 2015 World Championships, the real excitement brewing surrounds the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The Chinese Olympic committee must be pleased with the performance of its athletes, and the rest of the nations across the world—including perennial contenders like the United States, Brazil and Germany—should be taking note.

The competition between Team USA and China has been at the forefront of the Olympics for years, and the performance of the Chinese in the 2014 Asian Games should put the American athletes on notice.

Stats and information via Incheon2014ag.org.

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