Forget about everything that happened today – Day of the Olympic games was Michael Phelps returning to the top, winning his 20th Olympic medal and his 16th of gold, becoming the first swimmer to win the same event (200 IM) in three Olympic games, leaving Ryan Lochte and the rest of the field way way behind in a great day for the Americans in the pool.
Archery – Women’s Individual
Tied after five rounds of shooting arrows, Ki Bo-Bae of South Korea took gold in a single arrow shoot-off, winning her second gold medal of these Olympics. Aida Roman of Mexico took silver and another Mexican, Mariana Avitia, took bronze.
Canoeing
Men’s slalom C-2 – Two British duos took gold and silver, with Timothy Baillie & Etienne Stott taking gold, followed David Florence & Richard Hounslow, finishing 0.33 seconds behind. The Russian Hochschorner twins took bronze.
Women’s slalom K-1 – Emilie Fer of France took gold; Jessica Fox of Australia finished with silver; Maialen Chourraut of Spain took bronze.
Cycling
Women’s team sprint – Quite a controversial day on the track as both the Great Britain team and the Chinese team broke world records and later got penalized, China in the final no less, as Germany took gold, China silver and Australia came up with bronze.
Men’s team sprint – Great Britain broke the world record twice, allowing Chris Hoy to win his fifth Olympic gold medal and another gold for Great Britain, with France take silver and Germany taking bronze.
Fencing – Women’s Team Foil
Italy took gold, Russia finished second with silver, South Korea took bronze.
Gymnastics – Women’s Artistic Individual all-around
Gabrielle Douglas of the United States took gold, finishing just ahead of the favorite, Russia’s Victoria Komova who took silver. Aliya Mustafina of Russia also took a medal, bronze.
Judo
Women’s 78 kilograms – Kayla Harrison of the United States picked up the gold medal, beating Gemma Gibbons of Great Britain in the final. Audrey Thcheumeo of France and Mayra Aguiar of Brazil took bronze.
Men’s 100 kilograms – Tagir Khaibulaev of Russia beat Tuvshinbayar Naidan of Mongolia for the gold medal, leaving Dimitri Peters of Germany and Henk Grol of the Netherlands with bronze.
Rowing
Men’s double sculls – The world champions, the duo from New Zealand, Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan took the gold medal, followed by Italy with sivler and Slovenia with bronze.
Men’s Lightweight coxless four – South Africa’s quatro of Thompson, Brittain, Smith and Ndlovu won gold, the country’s first gold medal in rowing, followed by Great Britain with silver and Denmark with bronze.
Women’s eight – The United States took gold, followed by Canada with silver and New Zealand with bronze.
Shooting – Men’s double trap
Peter Wilson of the United States took gold, followed by Hakan Dahlby of Sweden with silver and Vasily Mosin of Russia with bronze.
Swimming
Women’s 200 meters breaststroke – Rebecca Soni of the United States won her first gold medal in London after a silver in half the distance, shattering the world record she set herself earlier on. Satomi Suzuki of Japan took silver and Yuliya Yefimova of Russia took bronze.
Men’s 200 meters backstroke – The beginning of Ryan Lochte’s disappointing day in the pool, finishing third and taking bronze, leaving him with only one individual gold medal in London, less than expected. Another American, Tyler Clary took gold, followed by Ryosuke Irie of Japan with silver.
Men’s 200 meters individual medley – The return/redemption/revenge of Michael Phelps, taking his first individual gold in London, beating Ryan Lochte who had to settle for silver while Laszlo Cseh of Hungary finished behind Phelps in an Olympic race once again.
Women’s 100 meters freestyle – Ranomi Kromowidjojo from the Netherlands is the only gold medalist on the day in the swimming pool not from the United States, setting a new Olympic record of 53.00, beating Aleksandra Gerasimenya of Belarus with silver and Tang Yi of China with bronze.
Table Tennis – Men’s singles
A Chinese final ended with Zhang Jike, the world champion, taking home the gold medal, beating Wang Hao, a silver medalist from Beijing. Dimitji Ovtcharov of Germany took bronze.
Medal Table
For the first time since the Olympics began, the United States now have more medals than China after a great day in more than just the pool, even with the Chinese with 18 gold medals as well, while Great Britain moved to fifth behind France and a surprising South Korea.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  China (CHN) |
18 | 11 | 5 | 34 |
| 2 |  United States (USA) |
18 | 9 | 10 | 37 |
| 3 |  South Korea (KOR) |
7 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| 4 |  France (FRA) |
6 | 4 | 6 | 16 |
| 5 |  Great Britain (GBR) |
5 | 6 | 4 | 15 |
| 6 |  Germany (GER) |
4 | 8 | 5 | 17 |
| 7 |  Italy (ITA) |
4 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
| 8 |  North Korea (PRK) |
4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 |  Russia (RUS) |
3 | 6 | 8 | 17 |
| 10 |  Kazakhstan (KAZ) |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
 South Africa (RSA) |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 12 |  Japan (JPN) |
2 | 6 | 11 | 19 |
| 13 |  Netherlands (NED) |
2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 14 |  Hungary (HUN) |
2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 15 |  Ukraine (UKR) |
2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| 16 |  Australia (AUS) |
1 | 7 | 3 | 11 |
| 17 |  Romania (ROU) |
1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 18 |  Brazil (BRA) |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 19 |  New Zealand (NZL) |
1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 20 |  Slovenia (SLO) |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 |  Georgia (GEO) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Lithuania (LTU) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Venezuela (VEN) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 24 |  Mexico (MEX) |
0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 25 |  Canada (CAN) |
0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 26 |  Colombia (COL) |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
 Cuba (CUB) |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 28 |  Sweden (SWE) |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 29 |  Belarus (BLR) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Denmark (DEN) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 Spain (ESP) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 Indonesia (INA) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 Mongolia (MGL) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 Norway (NOR) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 35 |  Czech Republic (CZE) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Egypt (EGY) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Poland (POL) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Thailand (THA) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Chinese Taipei (TPE) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 40 |  Slovakia (SVK) |
0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 41 |  Azerbaijan (AZE) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Belgium (BEL) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Greece (GRE) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 India (IND) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Moldova (MDA) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Qatar (QAT) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Singapore (SIN) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Serbia (SRB) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Uzbekistan (UZB) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 91 | 92 | 102 | 285 | |