Olympics Medal Tally 2012: Countries Who Must Finish Strong to Meet Expectations

No international competition makes a triumphant country more proud than the Olympics.

Individuals will take home medals that they’ve earned in 2012. The medal tally, though, is what the billions of people rooting for their nation—no matter what the event—truly care about. Here are the teams that have the most pressure to produce numbers as a whole in London.

3. United States

The United States has earned the reputation as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Most Athletic Freaks on the Planet. Since the Olympics began in 1896, Americans have won a whopping 2,549 medals not including this year’s games and 1,016 were gold. Russia boasts the next highest totals in each category, but the U.S. more than doubles them in both.

When you’ve been so dominant for so long, dominance becomes the norm and anything less than more dominance is unacceptable. The only reason why Team USA isn’t higher on this list is thanks to the country’s notably short attention span, they’d likely get over a loss quite quickly.

2. Great Britain

You could call Great Britain an Olympic powerhouse. It’s ranked fourth in all-time medals and has finished in the medal count top 10 the last three Olympic Games.

The reason why there’s so much pressure on Team GB to perform this year is because it’s the host. This happens every single Olympic year. The pressure naturally shifts to the host nation because, competing on their home turf, their athletes always get more attention than usual.

Now, it isn’t a realistic goal for the British to take aim at the first or second spot in the medal standings because the U.S. and China have those spots locked up. But if they finish third, you better believe it’d be a huge win for Great Britain.

1. China

Barack Obama and the Chinese government root for their nation’s athletes with different frames of mind. Plain and simple, China cares about winning more than any other country—they just feel the need to be seen as the best.

David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune reported that Chinese swimmer Lu Wing said of the difference between its athletes and a nation like Australia’s:

"

In China we are always used to just train, train, train, study, study, study. Our way of thinking has many limits and we set the limits. (Aussies) have an enthusiasm for swimming that makes me feel different and ask, "Do you train for yourself or for someone else?"

"

According to Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports, China’s government often forces children to leave their families and train in special athletic schools. After diver Wu Minxia won gold, her father said of her departure from home 10 years earlier:

"We accepted a long time ago that she doesn't belong entirely to us. I don't even dare to think about things like enjoying family happiness."

And that, ladies and gentleman, is why no Olympic team’s expectations are even remotely close to China’s.

Here are the top-five medal winners (as of this writing) and the complete standings.

OLYMPIC MEDAL TRACKER
	China  Total: 41	20	12	9
	United States  Total: 37	18	9	10
	Great Britain  Total: 19	6	6	7
	German  Total: 19	5	8	6
	Japan  Total: 19	2	6	11

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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