We’re halfway through the swimming finals in London, and the Americans have reasserted dominance atop the medal table, pushing their gold medal total to 6. That includes a win by Allison Schmitt that is the first by an American in that race since 1992, when a woman by the name of Nicole Haislett won.
With another gold medal from Ye Shiwen and a bronze from their men’s 800 free relay, China nudged ahead of France on the strength of a pair of bronze’s alone. With Sun Yang’s 1500 and the women’s 800 free relay yet to come, the Chinese probably have better prospects yet to come; however the French have nabbed surprise medals throughout this meet, so it would be hard to count them out. Yannick Agnel in Wednesday’s 100 free final is their best hope at more hardware.
South Africa, after going medal-less in 2008, already has two golds in 2012, and Australia is still hung up on their single gold from the women’s 400 free relay.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
6 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| 2 |  China |
3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3 |  France |
3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 |  South Africa |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 |  Australia |
1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 6 |  Lithuania |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 |  South Korea |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 |  Brazil |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Netherlands |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 10 |  Japan |
0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 11 |  Great Britain |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Russia |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 16 | 17 | 15 | 48 | |
besides Adlington’s bronze, disappointing to see that GB has not been able to pull together medal performances thus far. a few years ago they seemed to be setting themselves up nicely to make some noise at these games…
If there’s a stroke where the crowd cheering comes into great effect, it would be the breastroke and with GB qualified 1st and 3rd with Jameison and Willis, it wouldn’t be surprised if the whole place erupted near the end of that race. And the breast is very much a british event.
The women’s 200 fly is a confusing race… What happen to the Chinese? Hersey is doing great!
I think there was some playing possum in the semifinals. Given the speed we’ve seen post-suits, 2:05.9 isn’t going to hold up as fastest time at the meet.
Both Jiao (2008 silver medallist and last year’s world champ) and Liu (2008 gold and WR holder) are in the final as the 2nd and 6th fastest qualifier, respectively. Also look out for the japanese- if I remember correctly she swam 2:04 at their trial.
China has already bested their medal count from 2008. US needs 15 to match their 2008 medal count, 6 more gold to match that count.
Possible golds remaining for USA in my opinion 200 back (M/W) 400MR (M/W), 800FR W, 200br W, 200im M, longer shots would be 100fly M, 100free M, and 800free women. 6 more golds is attainable I think.
I don’t know if I would call the USA’s chance at gold in 100m fly a long shot. While MP has been vulnerable at this meet, his speed is looking good (a la 47.1 relay swim). Definitely still think he has a solid chance at gold there.