Eleven Olympians won more than three medals each. A partial list:

Aleksei Nemov, Russia, men’s gymnastics: two gold, one silver, three bronze

Amy Van Dyken, U.S., women’s swimming: four gold

Michelle Smith, Ireland, women’s swimming: three gold, one bronze

Gary Hall Jr., U. S., men’s swimming: two gold, two silver

Aleksandr Popov, Russia, men’s swimming: two gold, two silver * Angel Martino, U.S., women’s swimming: two gold, two bronze

Simona Amanar, Romania gymnastics: one gold, one silver, two bronze

Everyone complained about the and the delayed, overpackaged events. But they still watched. Prime-time ratings:

1988 Summer Olympics 17.9 1992 Summer Olympics 17.5 1992 Winter Olympics 18.7 1994 Winter Olympics 27.8 1996 Summer Olympics 22.4*

*Through Thursday, Aug. 1

More than 25 world records were broken during the Games. The most impressive were the weightlifters, who shattered 15. A selection:

OLD NEW RECORD RECORD Swimming Penelope Heyns, South Africa; 100m breaststroke 1:07.46 1:07.02 Track and Field Michael Johnson, U.S.; 200m 19.66 19.32 Cycling Andrea Collinelli, Italy; 4k pursuit 4:19.699 4:19.153 Weightlifting (in kilograms) Andrei Chemerkin, Russia; 108kg-plus 255 260 Shooting (in points) Christian Klees, Germany; 200m 703.5 704.8

By Friday, five athletes had failed drug tests. AU were found to have used bromantan, a stimulant that kicks in twice: two to three hours and then six to seven hours after taking it. The offenders:

Marina Trandenkova, women’s lOOm, 200m sprint * Andrei Korneyev, men’s 200m breaststroke

Zafar Gulyov, men’s Greco-Roman wrestling

Nina Zhivanevskaya, women’s backstroke

Rita Raznaite, women’s track sprint cycling

Adding even more glory to their feats, these nine athletes introduced their countries to the pantheon of Olympic-medal winners.

Gold medal Costa Rica Claudia Poll Women’s 200m freestyle Ecuador Jefferson Perez Men’s 20km walk Hong Kong Lee Lai-shan Women’ mistral sailing Syria Ghada Shouaa Women’s heptathalon Silver medal Malaysia Soo Beng, Tan Kim Men’s doubles badminton Bronze medal Mozambique Maria Mutola Women’s 800m Trinidad Ato Boldon Men’s 100m, 200m Uganda Davis Kamoga Men’s 400m

The U.S. topped the medal standings, but account for population, and the rankings look quite different.

COUNTRY GOLD TOTAL U.S. 36 87 Russia 23 53 Germany 14 52 China 16 49 Australia 9 37 France 15 35 Italy 11 29 MEDAL PER COUNTRY TOTAL POP. Australia 1:495,195 New Zealand 1:567,879 Trinidad 1:635,579 Cuba 1:643,390 Jamaica 1:643,572 Belarus 1:695,827 Hungary 1:793,756

*THROUGH FRIDAY, AUG. 2.