2012 OLYMPICS: USA REGAINS MEDAL SUPREMACY AS THE GAMES CLOSE
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 14 Aug 2012
The United States emerged again as the sports power of the world by topping the final Olympic medal tally with 46 gold, 29 silver, 29 bronze medals for a total of 104. China, the overall champion and host in 2008, came in second with 38-27-23, 88. Host Great Britain showed that they were very successful as hosts in the staging as well as in the playing of the Games by coming in third with 29-17-19, 65.
Fourth place was Russia, 24-26-32, 82. Fifth was South Korea with 13-8-7, 28. Rounding up the top ten were: sixth, Germany 11-19-14, 44; seventh, France 11-11-12, 34; eighth, Italy, 8-9-11, 28; ninth, Hungary 8-4-5, 17; and tenth, Australia 7-16-12, 35.
The top twenty included Japan (7-4-17), Kazakhstan (7-1-5), Netherlands (6-6-8), Ukraine (6-5-9), New Zealand (6-2-5), Cuba (5-3-6), Iran (4-5-3), Jamaica (4-4-4), Czech Republic , and North Korea (4-0-2).
Those who won at least three gold medals were Spain, Brazil, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Croatia. The countries who won at least two golds were Belarus, Romania, Kenya, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Poland, Turkey, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Norway.
The following nations won at least a gold medal each, namely: Canada, Sweden, Colombia, Georgia, Mexico, Ireland, Argentina, Slovenia, Serbia, Tunisia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada, Uganda, and Venezuela.
Other countries who won medals were India, Mongolia, Thailand, Egypt, Slovakia, Armenia, Belgium, Finland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei, Botswana, Cyprus, Gabon, Guatemala, Montenegro, Portugal, Greece, Moldova, Qatar, Singapore, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, and Tajikistan.
Of the 204 nations that participated, only 79 were able to win medals. That means 125 countries were not able to win any single medal and that includes the Philippines.
The Greatest Show on Earth closed on August 12 in a closing ceremony also known as A Symphony of British Music. It mixed up both conventional acts and modern artistic talent, to celebrate music having been one of Britain?s most popular cultural stuff over the past 50 years. The ceremony included a handover to the next host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympic cauldron was extinguished at one minute past midnight, formally indicating the end of the 2012 Olympic Games.
The guests of honor were IOC President Jacques Rogge and Prince Harry, as representative of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. There was also a posthumous rendering of John Lennon's "Imagine", and a similar showing of a video of Freddie Mercury, then the performance of Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen.
According to protocol, three national flags were hoisted one at a time during the ceremony with their respective national anthems played; that of Greece to honor the birthplace of the Olympic Games; the host country, Great Britain; and of Brazil, the host of the next Summer Games.
Sixteen days of sports and pageantry ended. As the London 2012 Summer Games came to a close, we conclude our series of articles about the 2012 Olympics.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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