The table presents the number of medals won by the top 10 countries in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Base on the table, the USA ranked first, followed by China in second, Great Britain in third, Russia in fourth, then South Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, and the last is Australia.
The United States came in first place with 46 gold medals and a total of 104 medals, while China had to settle for second place with 38 gold medals and a total of 88 medals. As the host nation, Great Britain performed well by winning 29 gold medals and 65 medals in total, which placed them higher than Russia despite having fewer total medals. Although Russia won 24 gold medals and had a total of 82 medals, due to having 5 fewer gold medals than Great Britain, they could only rank fourth. The South Korea only had a total of 28 medals, less than the total medals of Germany and France, they still successfully achieved fifth place by winning 13 gold medals. Germany and France both won 11 gold medals, but Germany’s total medal count was 44 while France’s total medal count was 34, so Germany’s ranked was sixth and France’s ranked was seventh. Like Germany and France, Italy and Hungary have the same 8 gold medals, but since Italy has a total of 28 medals while Hungary has only a total of 17, Italy is ranked 8th and Hungary is ranked 9th. The last place belongs to Australia, although they have a total of 35 medals, they can only rank below Italy and Hungary due to only having 7 gold medals.
In short, some countries like the Great Britain or South Korea are ranked higher thanks to having more gold medals despite having fewer total medals, which shows how important gold medals are in the rankings, and in the case of equal number of gold medals, the total number of medals will decide which country is ranked higher.