Spanish here. 17 medals.

Just 5 states is an odd thing as surely it's down to the schooling and effort put in by the state education system to develop talent, unless they are more concerned with the big US sports. You'd think interest would be high due to how well the USA always do.

Really I think the USA exceeded expectations as well, even if they were high already. This was supposed to be a transitionary year for swimming and yet they dominated even in some races where it was totally unexpected (those golds for Simone Manuel and dirado for instance).

Otherwise, there was an enormous variety of success, including biking/wrestling/shooting/fencing/sprinting/triathlon/boxing/gymnastics/boating/shot put/decathlon.... Really, the only disappointment was the women's soccer team and solo being a sore loser.

I watch a lot of sports and listen to some sports radio and the Olympics seems to be losing popularity. Most of the coverage I see is of the rah-rah, USA-USA mentality but otherwise there isn't nearly as much coverage of it as there is of the NFL or the NBA. We are by far an (American) football country first, and aside from Phelps, Ledecky, the women's gymnastics team and Bolt, the athletes don't tend to draw much interest. As Pokoko said,  the teams we send are so big that a lot of the medals don't seem to mean that much, save for those that have some historical significance (such as Simone Manuel's win in the pool). 

I'm generalizing here, and certainly can't speak for the entire country, but the olympics seems to have lost a bit of its popularity from when I was younger. I still enjoy the games as much as I used to, but few of my friends ever talk about it, and it seems that the World Cup is starting to capture more enthusiasm in the realms of patriotic sports events. The Olympics is still a big thing, but I think it is getting less popular. Maybe because, as pokoko said, there's no real rival to go against, both in the political and physical sense. 

The Olympics is pretty minor compared to the Super Bowl in this country, to be honest, with March Madness, the college football championship, and the NBA finals being very big as well. 

1: They must have overlooked that Grenada's medal was of silver. Tbh I didn't notice either.

2: Don't know their reasoning. You could ask them. It's just a different way to meaningfully compare performances of large and small countries. So... why shouldn't it?

I can understand the points both of you made. It's a shame as while in the UK the world cup and even football in general is bigger, we love a good sporting event like this. In a way I can see that in your education system that if a teenager can run fast, they won't be pushed to be a sprinter but a running back, if they are tall and jump well, they won't be trained to be a high jumper but a basketball player.

I would think the US would be somewhat interested as it is their chance to show the world how good they are at things and saying 'We're the best national in the world.' type deal. Oh well.

Exactly, our best athletes get pushed into football and basketball, with track being an ancillary sport they might do on their free time and competitive swimming being available mostly to kids from relatively wealthy families. 

Shite. Had a boxer busted for drugs which embarrassed our country, had 2 of our best boxers way off their best and had another boxer who destroyed his Russian opponent for a bronze medal but the judges were paid off and he was cheated.

To top it all off the head of our Olympic committee was busted in a ticketing scandal and is currently arrested.

One or two pleasant surprises but overall a massive let down.

Ireland.