The O List, Part 3

Sports

"The greatest relay race in the history of the Olympics," this commentator called it. Jason Lezak led the US 4x100 free relay team to stunning victory over the favored French on day three. The 32 year-old Lezak - in the anchor position - came from behind to just out-touch France's 25 year-old Alain Bernard by eight hundredths of a second. His split of 46.06 seconds became the fastest in Olympic history, and shamed Bernard's comments of last Thursday: "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for."

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The widely-published medal counts never seem to go into too much detail; and there is no doubt you can learn so much about a country by the sports it succeeds in. So today I present the top 5 in the medal count to this point with that additional bit of information:

1. China - 14 (9 gold): 2 Archery, 3 Shooting, 2 Diving, 1 Swimming, 4 Weightlifting, 2 Judo

Fierce all-around competitors, obviously with some muscular strength and good aim.

2. United States - 12 (3 gold): 8 Swimming, 3 Fencing, 1 Shooting

A swimming powerhouse, with dominant female fencers.

3. South Korea - 8 (4 gold): 2 Archery, 2 Judo, 1 Shooting, 1 Fencing, 1 Swimming, 1 Weightlifting

All-around force part 2; Judo's a winner, just wait until Taekwondo starts.

4. Italy - 8 (3 gold): 2 Cycling, 3 Fencing, 1 Judo, 1 Shooting, 1 Archery

One disappointment from swimmer Federica Pellegrini may be redeemed; strong cyclists and fencers can make up those medals for now.

5. Russia - 6 (0 gold): 3 Shooting, 2 Diving, 1 Weightlifting

Seemingly always a step behind the Chinese divers; but their talented shooters have padded their count, until that first gold just around the corner.