The United States took back the lead in the overall medal count at the 2012 Olympics on Wednesday's Day 12. Seven medals from four events on the track, including gold medals by Allyson Felix, Aries Merritt, and Brittney Reese, helped propel Team USA past China.
Felix broke through for her first individual gold in the women's 200 meters on Wednesday, making her the first woman ever with three Olympic medals in the 200 meters and ending an eight-year rivalry with Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown. Merritt and countryman Jason Richardson won gold and silver in the men's 110m hurdles. And Reese won just the second U.S. gold in the women's long jump, giving the U.S. three of the four individual track and field golds awarded on the day. In the fourth event, Lashinda Demus won silver in the women's 400m hurdles.
Bronze medals from Carmelita Jeter in the 200 meters and Janay DeLoach in the women's long jump helped push the U.S. tally on the track to 20 medals. That's far and away the best effort by a nation in athletics: Russia is second to the U.S. with nine medals.
The U.S.'s 11 medals on Wednesday erased a Chinese lead in the medal count, and give Team USA a four-medal advantage after Day 12.
Here is how the top five looks in the latest medal count:
- United States, 81 (34, 22, 25)
- China, 77 (36 gold, 22 silver, 19 bronze)
- Russia, 52 (11, 19, 22)
- Great Britain, 48 (22, 13, 13)
- Germany, 32 (7, 15, 10)
And for a more aesthetically-pleasing version of that, here's the Day 12 8-bit medal count video.
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics hub.
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