(BEIJING, January 4) -- Though 2007 was a less-busy sports year due to the absence of large-scale global sports events like the football World Cup and the Olympic Games, several world championships held by various International Sports Federations and other World Cup competitions helped to create a heated atmosphere for the warm-up of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. During the past twelve months, Olympic powerhouse USA bagged 101 medals in world-level competitions that also appear on the Olympic program, topping the annual world medal tally of Olympic-program competitions with 45 gold medals. Olympic host country China followed the USA with 92 medals (38 gold, 28 silver and 26 bronze), and Russia, another powerful sports tycoon, followed with 81 medals. The table below is the detailed presentation of the medal results by the top three nations of USA, CHN and RUS in 28 Olympic-program competitions in the major sporting events of 2007.
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