Gold Medal Count 2012: Predicting Final Top-5 Leaderboard

With the chase for gold-medal supremacy at the 2012 Summer Olympics from London underway, the race to see which nation walks away with the most hardware is starting to heat up.

While China has been holding onto their lead in the gold medal battle, Team USA is still right in the hunt to steal the show and finish the games with the most No. 1 finishers.

As the Games enter their final full week of action, the most hotly contested battle remaining will be on the Olympic medal board. Fans of the nations in the hunt for gold-medal supremacy will be pulling for their country.

This is how we feel the standings will look when the torch is finally extinguished and the Olympics are finally over.

For the full 2012 Olympics Medal Tracker, check out Bleacher Report’s official standings.

No. 5: South Korea

While the nation of South Korea isn’t the largest, their country has a strong athletic culture that breeds success. After a long set of Olympic Games, the South Koreans will walk away with the fifth-most gold medals.

There are still many South Korean stars left to go in events like taekwondo, cycling and field hockey, so their medal count has plenty of time to increase.

Predicted Gold Medal Count: 14

No. 4: France

France has been the most consistent of any of the secondary gold-medal contenders, scoring eight medals over the first eight days.

If they keep that up, they will dance around the 15 or 16 gold medal range; that’s not bad.

With 346 athletes competing for the nation in these Olympics, though, if they get any less than 14 gold medals, the 2012 Games must be considered a failure for the French.

Predicted Gold Medal Count: 15

No. 3: Great Britain

The home country of Great Britain has treated everyone great throughout these Olympics, and they will deserve the No. 3 spot when all is said and done.

With 26 predicted gold medals, including the biggest win of tennis star Andy Murray's careerand a great showing by every arena and portion of these Games, Great Britain should be proud.

The country still has many more events that is has excelled at in the past, so expecting more gold is not a stretch of the imagination. This year’s Olympic host deserves all the gold they can get.

Predicted Gold Medal Count: 26

No. 2: China

While the sports that China is most dominant in—badminton, diving, etc.—have been very successful thus far, there is still plenty of time before the end of the Olympics for them to slowly lose their gold medal lead.

China’s best events are mostly completed now, but their presence in each sport will continue to be felt throughout the remaining days; the dominance just won’t be there.

That's a good thing for Team USA!

Predicted Gold Medal Count: 46

No. 1: Team USA

With a strong presence in the track and field events, Team USA looks to mount a late-Olympics charge and take over both the gold medal race and the overall medal race.

While China has a much larger population, the United States has become the central hub of everything athletics. That’s why so many foreign countries send their stars to America to learn their craft, only to attend the Olympic Games and be trumped by the very teachers that helped them get there.

That’s what Team USA does.

Fans can’t forget that many of the best American athletes have yet to compete for a medal in these Olympics—USA basketball, USA beach volleyball, etc.—so there is still plenty of time to step on the gas.

Predicted Gold Medal Count: 47

Check back for more on the 2012 Summer Olympics as it comes, and don’t miss Bleacher Report’s Olympics page to get your fill of the best athletes the world has to offer.

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