The United States made some strides in the medal count on Wednesday at the 2012 Olympic Games, but they still have a bit of catching up to do if they want to get a true leg up on China. The U.S. now has four medals more than China, but China has two more gold medals than the United States. And you had best believe that the U.S. wants to at least match those gold medals.

There is another heated battle going on for the third spot on the total medal leaderboard, as host country Great Britain has suddenly slipped back into fourth place. Russia reclaimed No. 3 on the list by snaring four more medals than the UK over the last few days.

Here is what the medal count leaderboard looked like heading into Thursday's events.

1. United States - 81 (34, 22, 25)
2. China - 77 (36, 22, 19)
3. Russia - 52 (11, 19, 22)
4. Great Britain - 48 (22, 13, 13)
5. Germany - 32 (7, 15, 10)

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