Gator Nation Is At The 2012 Olympics, Day 15: Jeff Demps Strikes Silver, Novlene Williams-Mills Bronze

Jeff Demps adds silver as reserve

Jeff Demps didn't run in the final of the 4 x 100 meters relay on Saturday, and he might not have done anything in it. But there are worse things in life than winning a silver medal while watching one of the fastest races ever.

Demps' United States teammates came in second in the final, running a 37.04 that matched the world record. Unfortunately for them, Usain Bolt and the Jamaican team crushed that record by two-tenths of a second in a blazing 36.84, or an average of 9.21 seconds per leg. Demps earned silver in the event after running in the qualifying heat for the U.S. on Friday.

As long as Demps runs in the same races as Bolt and Yohan Blake and Justin Gatlin and so on, of course, he'll be an underdog, and as long as he's running for U.S. team against Bolt et al., he's got to be okay with his best effort only being good enough for silver.

Contributing to a silver medal effort just eight months after being in football shape, though? That's astounding.

Williams-Mills gets bronze

Novlene Williams-Mills has been in one of the most painful penumbras in sprinting in her career: she's been fast enough in the women's 400 meters to be at the Olympics, but not fast enough to win an individual medal. She just missed qualifying for the 2004 and 2008 400 meters finals, and was fifth in 2012's.

Good thing for her that there are other fast Jamaicans, though: Williams-Mills added her third medal on Saturday as part of the women's 4 x 400 meters team, while the U.S. blew away the field for gold.

Jamaica's crossed the line third in all three of the finals Williams-Mills has been a part of, though the U.S. being disqualified from the 2004 Games retroactively earned her a silver medal.

Three medals, one silver, isn't bad for "only" being in the top 15 or so in an Olympic event for eight years.

Gator Nation Medal Count, Day 15

Total Medals: 16 (Ryan Lochte: 2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze, one gold shared with Conor Dwyer; Christian Taylor: 1 gold; Abby Wambach and Heather Mitts, 1 gold shared; Elizabeth Beisel: 1 silver, 1 bronze; Will Claye: 1 silver, 1 bronze; Jeff Demps: 1 silver; Tony McQuay: 1 silver; Melanie Booth: 1 bronze; Lisa Raymond: 1 bronze; Novlene Williams-Mills: 1 bronze)

Total Medals For Individual Gators: 18 (Ryan Lochte: 2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze; Conor Dwyer: 1 gold; Heather Mitts: 1 gold; Christian Taylor: 1 gold; Abby Wambach: 1 gold; Elizabeth Beisel: 1 silver, 1 bronze; Will Claye: 1 silver, 1 bronze; Jeff Demps: 1 silver; Tony McQuay: 1 silver; Melanie Booth: 1 bronze; Lisa Raymond: 1 bronze; Novlene Williams-Mills: 1 bronze)

Gold Medals: 4 (Lochte, men's 400 meters IM; Taylor, men's triple jump; Wambach/Mitts, women's soccer; Lochte/Dwyer, men's 4 x 200 meters relay)

Silver Medals: 6 (Lochte, men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay and men's 200 meters IM; Beisel, women's 400 meters IM; Claye, men's triple jump; McQuay, men's 4 x 400 meters relay)

Bronze Medals: 6 (Lochte, men's 200 meters backstroke, Beisel, women's 200 meters backstroke; Claye, men's long jump; Raymond, tennis mixed doubles; Booth, women's soccer)

Percentage of U.S. Gold Medals, Excluding Transfers: 9.1 percent (4 of 44)

Percentage of U.S. Gold Medals, Including Transfers: 15.9 percent (7 of 44)

Percentage of U.S. Medals, Excluding Transfers: 13.7 percent (14 of 102)

Percentage of U.S. Medals, Including Transfers: 16.7 percent (17 of 102)

For the purposes of our medal count, I'm counting 34 members of Olympic teams as Gators, by the same criteria as Only Gators. GatorZone counts Gators letterwinners, including four who transferred to finish their collegiate careers elsewhere, meaning that Dana Vollmer is part of their stats. I'll calculate stats for both here.

If the University of Florida were its own country, it would currently be in 16th in the medal rankings, a spot ahead of Iran, and tied with Spain for 15th in the overall Olympic medal count. The former stat ranks teams with better medals first; the latter only includes total medals.

Gator Nation no longer leads Great Britain, but has four more medals than Jamaica, and one more than Brazil.

No Gators athletes remain, and so the medal numbers are final. The percentages are not, because there are still medals to be awarded on