Summer Olympic Games Jacques Rogge described the Games as "Happy and Glorious". The host nation won 29 gold medals, the best haul for Great Britain since the 1908 Games in London. The United States returned to the top of the medal table after China dominated in 2008. The IOC had removed baseball and softball from the 2012 program. On a commercial level the Games were successful as they were the first in history to completely sell out every ticket, with as many as 1 million applications for 40,000 tickets for both the Opening Ceremony and the 100m Men's Sprint Final. Such was the
United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics Anthony Ervin (swimming), who both made their comeback in London after long years of absence. Two hundred and eight returning athletes had competed in Beijing, including 124 Olympic medalists, and 76 defending champions. Among the nation's defending champions were swimmers Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin. Phelps won a historic amount of eight gold medals in Beijing to become the most-decorated Olympic athlete at a single event and the first person to win a total of fourteen Olympic gold medals. Coughlin, on the other hand, won a total of 11 Olympic medals in two previous games, including six gold medals from