U.S. tops charts with 103 medals

ATHENS, Greece — The United States finished atop the medal charts for the third straight Summer Olympics, with Russia the overall runner-up and China second in gold medals — its best showing ever and the leading edge of a surge by Asian teams.

Six nations won gold medals for the first time; the trailblazers included an Arab sheik marksman and an Israeli windsurfer. Two other countries, Paraguay and Eritrea, won their first medals of any sort.

The American team amassed 103 total medals, topping its target of 100, and won 35 golds to 32 for China and 27 for Russia. But China played the lead role in the games’ most significant trend — the improvement of Asian squads in a widening array of Olympic sports as they gird for the 2008 Beijing Games.

Far East Asian nations won 63 gold medals in Athens, compared to 43 at Sydney in 2000. Japan alone upped its gold total from five to 16, the biggest increase of any nation, while China won golds for the first time in tennis and men’s track.

“These were the Games where we saw the awakening of Asia,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said. “The traditional strong nations that dominate the scene now will have to work extremely hard.”

Australian Olympic chief John Coates, whose team finished fourth, said China and Japan “have sent us an ominous warning. They’re gearing up for a dominant performance in 2008.”

Asia’s gains came largely at the expense of Europe. Germany won 48 medals in Athens, nine fewer than in Sydney, while medal hauls also dropped for France, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. Greece, despite drug scandals and other setbacks, won 16 medals, its best showing since it hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.

Russia dipped in golds compared to Sydney (27 to 32) but, despite disappointing performances in swimming and gymnastics, exceeded its overall medal total — 92 this time compared to 88 in 2000.

The Americans won the most medals in swimming and track, and finished just one behind Romania in gymnastics. U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr, who set his team’s medal target, said surpassing it was “an exceptional accomplishment” in light of the stiffening competition from Asia and the former Soviet republics.

Yet the U.S. gold medal total of 35 was the lowest since the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

India had the worst ratio among medal winners — just one, a silver in shooting, for its 1.3 billion people.

In all, 75 of the 202 countries competing in Athens won at least one medal. In Sydney, 80 won medals.