Olympic Medal Count 2012 Chart: Events That Will Decide USA vs. China Medal Race

The United States and China are embroiled in a bitter battle for supremacy in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. The only way to be sure of a victory is to have more medals—especially gold—by the time the closing ceremony takes place on August 12.

With just two days remaining in the London Games, there are a number of crucial events for both super powers that have yet to award their medals.

Let’s take a look at a few events that will certainly make an impact on who is on top of the medal count at the end of the Olympics and make a prediction on which country will prevail.

Basketball

The U.S. is extremely likely to waltz through both the men’s and women’s tournaments to pick up two prestigious gold medals. The women are currently in the finals and the men are facing Argentina (a team they have beaten twice in the past month) in the semis.

China is out of the running in both events, so the U.S. will pick up an easy two medals here.

Synchronized Swimming

China has gained a lot of ground on the U.S. in the past two Olympiads by excelling at sports that aren’t popular stateside.

Synchronized swimming is certainly one of those and the U.S. is certainly no threat to medal in any of the remaining events.

The Chinese have a great chance to win a bronze or better in the team competition on Friday.

Track and Field

Team USA has a major advantage over China in the last few days of track and field. There are tons of events that the Chinese simply haven’t caught up to speed yet in, while the U.S. has traditionally dominated here.

Expect the Americans to score a bunch of golds and a lot of medals before the games close in this multi-discipline sport.

Prediction

Team USA will narrowly edge China for the total medal count and gold-medal count. It won't happen until the final day, but the Americans have enough events left that they excel in to overcome the Chinese. 

London Olympics Medal Count

Olympic Medal Tracker
	United States Total: 90	39	25	26
	China Total: 80	37	24	19
	Russia Total: 56	12	21	23
	Great Britain Total: 52	25	13	14
	Germany Total: 37	10	16	11

Full count can be found here.