Olympic Medal Count 2012: Countries That Made Biggest Pushes on Day 12
Don't count the Americans out just yet.
After controlling the medal race for most of the first 11 days of the Olympics, China finally must look up at the United States on the medal table. That is, if you're going by total medals.
Most people expected the Americans to take the lead once track and field got started, but because of China's dominance in the combat and other sports, the U.S. wasn't really making a strong move.
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Until Wednesday.
With the help of some sprinters, the Americans shook up the medal race. Let's take a closer look at the USA and other countries that made significant strides in the standings. Yay, alliteration.
Note: For a complete look at Wednesday's medal results, click here. You can find the medal count at the bottom of this page.
United States (4 Gold, 1 Silver, 4 Bronze on Day 12)
On the day, there were four track and field final events that took place. That means 12 medals—yes, I'm pretty good at math—were handed out.
Of those 12, the Americans took an astounding seven.
In the men's 110-meter high hurdles, Aries Merritt and Jason Richardson took gold and silver. In the women's 200 Allyson Felix finally got her gold medal while Derek's sister (not really), Carmelita Jeter grabbed bronze.
Lashinda Demus completed her amazing story with a silver in the 400 hurdles while Brittney Reese (gold) and Janay Deloach (bronze) added medals in the women's high jump.
That's pure domination.
Throw in the all-USA women's beach volleyball final that was won by Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh and a couple of medals in the combat sports, and the Americans pulled in a ridiculous 11 medals on the day.
Compare that to China's four, and the day couldn't have gone any better for the USA.
Germany (1 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze on Day 12)
If the Americans were the kings and queens of the track, then the Germans were kings and queens of the water.
More specifically, the canoe.
Sebastian Brendel took home gold in the men's 1000-meter C1 while Max Hoff and the German team added medals from the kayaks.
With five total medals on the day, Germany cracked the top five for the first time in a while. Its athletes can't be content with that, though, as Japan, France, Australia and South Korea are all close behind.
Russia (1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze on Day 12)
The story of Great Britain dominating as the host nation has been a fantastic one, but after a solid day from Russia, the British have dropped to fourth in the standings.
Great Britain does still have a commanding hold on third place in terms of gold medals, but a medal-less day on Wednesday hurt big time.
Russia, meanwhile, took advantage, grabbing three medals in the track and field (no non-American, Russian or Jamaican medaled on Wednesday) and one more in Equestrian. There is still an investigation on-going about whether or not the horse was really Russian (not really).
All-in-all, a great day for Russia as it took over the constant battle for third.
Olympic Medal Leaderboard as of August 8 at 9 p.m. EDT
Visit B/R's Standings and Medal Winners Tracker for updated standings!
 |  |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | United States Total: 81 | 34 | 22 | 25 |
 | China Total: 77 | 36 | 22 | 19 |
 | Russia Total: 52 | 11 | 19 | 22 |
 | Great Britain Total: 48 | 22 | 13 | 13 |
 | Germany Total: 32 | 7 | 15 | 10 |
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