The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were historic for U.S. track and field, but especially the distance men and women.

By scoring the meet 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, Team USA earned a staggering 345.5 points with 32 total medals. To put that into perspective, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Jamaica's combined score was 346 points with 32 total medals. From that vantage, Team USA is essentially the Jamaican sprinters combined with the Kenya/Ethiopian distance runners. See below:

TOP 10 TEAM SCORES:
01) 345.5 USA
02) 149.0 KENYA
03) 121.0 JAMAICA
04) 97.5 GREAT BRITAIN
05) 87.0 CHINA
06) 76.5 GERMANY
07) 76.0 ETHIOPIA
08) 68.0 CANADA
09) 60.0 FRANCE
10) 47.5 POLAND

From the 800m to marathon, U.S. men beat distance powerhouse Kenya. Wow! See below:

MEN'S DISTANCE TEAM SCORES:
01) 54.0 pts USA
02) 52.0 pts KENYA
03) 25.0 pts ETHIOPIA
04) 23.0 pts GREAT BRITAIN
05) 16.0 pts ALGERIA
06) 15.0 pts FRANCE

The women also put up impressive numbers, but the Kenyan and Ethiopian women were dominant once again in 2016. See below:

WOMEN'S DISTANCE TEAM SCORES:
01) 79.0 pts KENYA
02) 51.0 pts ETHIOPIA
03) 27.0 pts USA
04) 19.0 pts BAHRAIN
05) 10.0 pts SOUTH AFRICA
06) 8.0 pts BURUNDI

The U.S. women's 27 points and the men's 54 points are the most points that American distance runners have scored in recent Olympic history. See below:

U.S. WOMEN'S OLYMPIC HISTORY

YEAR	TOTAL	800	1500	Steeple	5K/3K	10K	Marathon
2016	27	1	11	7	0	3	5
2012	7	4	3	0	0	0	0
2008	8	0	2	-	0	6	0
2004	9	3	0	-	0	0	6
2000	1	0	1	-	0	0	0
1996	0	0	0	-	0	0	0
1992	15	2	0	-	6	7	0
1988	21	10	1	-	3	7	0
1984	28	11	1	-	6	-	10
1980	0	0	0	-	-	-	-
1976	1	0	1	-	-	-	-
1972	0	0	0	-	-	-	-

U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC HISTORY

YEAR	TOTAL	800	1500	Steeple	5K	10K	Marathon
2016	54	7	11	11	12	4	9
2012	46	9	13	4	7	8	5
2008	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2004	8	0	0	0	0	0	8
2000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1996	9	2	0	4	3	0	0
1992	9	6	1	2	0	0	0
1988	15	4	4	3	4	0	0
1984	25	8	4	11	2	0	0
1980	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1976	22	6	3	0	0	0	13
1972	34	10	0	0	5	4	15

When breaking down the events by country, China is the greatest at race walk, the U.S. women are the best at sprinting, and the U.S. men own distance running. See below:

RANK	PTS/EVENT	EVENTS
01	14.00	CHN Race Walk
02	13.57	USA Women's Sprints
03	13.17	KEN Women's Distance
04	10.50	USA Men's Jumps
05	9.38	USA Women's Jumps
06	9.00	USA Men's Distance
07	8.71	JAM Women's Sprints
08	8.67	KEN Men's Distance
09	8.50	ETH Women's Distance
10	8.25	GER Men's Throws
11	8.14	JAM Men's Sprints
12	6.00	USA Multis
12	6.00	CAN Multis
12	6.00	USA Men's Sprints

Nike Oregon Project had an amazing Olympics, and racked up four medals while the Oregon Track Club earned three and the Bowerman Track Club got one. See below:

Nike Oregon Project: Alberto Salazar
01 Matthew Centrowitz (1500m)
01 Mo Farah (5,000m)
01 Mo Farah (10,000m)
03 Galen Rupp (Marathon)
04 Shannon Rowbury (1500m)
05 Galen Rupp (10,000m)
17 Suguru Osako (10,000m)
28 Suguru Osako (5,000m)

Bowerman Track Club: Jerry Schumacher
02 Evan Jager (3,000m Steeplechase)
04 Mo Ahmed (5,000m)
05 Betsy Saina (10,000m)
06 Shalane Flanagan (Marathon)
08 Colleen Quigley (3,000m Steeplechase)
09 Amy Cragg (Marathon)
10 Matthew Hughes (3,000m Steeplechase)
11 Courtney Frerichs (3,000m Steeplechase)
11 Shelby Houlihan (5,000m)
11 Emily Infeld (10,000m)
32 Mo Ahmed (10,000m)

Oregon Track Club: Mark Rowland
01 Ashton Eaton* (Decathlon)
02 Francine Niyonsaba (800m)
03 Brianne Theisen-Eaton* (Heptathlon)
08 Ben Blankenship (1500m)
11 Hassan Mead (5,000m)
14 Aisha Praught (3,000m Steeplechase)
17 Alexi Pappas* (10,000m)
18 Mo Aman (800m)
30 Charles Jock (800m)
40 Tom Farrell (5,000m)
*Not coached by Rowland

Even when you scale the nations by population, the U.S. was still the best at the 2016 Olympics.

While most people would simply divide the points scored by population, this is not correct because countries are limited to three entries per event. Therefore, we use the following formula.

% of POP = Country's Population / World Population
World Population = only countries competing in T&F
This allows us to see how big each country is compared to each other. For example, China is 37 percent of the competing population, USA is 8.7 percent, etc.

% of MAX = Points Scored / 1,128
1,128 = Points a country would score if they went 1-2-3 in all 47 events.
This allows us to see how successful each country was on a scale of 0-1, with 1 being a perfect meet where the nation swept every event. USA was at a .306.

FloFactor = (% of MAX) / (SUM of % of MAX)
SUM of % of MAX = If you add up all of the country's % of MAX in this case it is 1.62​​
This allows us to see how sucessful each country was compared to each other. USA was 18.9 percent.

​​​​​% Diff = FloFactor - % of POP
This provides a figure for whether a nation over- or under-achieved based on population advantage. If you look at China, they have 37 percent of the population, but only had 4.8 percent of the Olympic success; thus, they underachieved by 32.5 percent. USA has 8.7 percent of the population, and had 18.9 percent of the Olympic success; thus, they overachieved by about 10 percent.

RNK	COUNTRY	PTS	Pop.	% Diff	FloFactor	% of MAX	% of POP
01	USA	345.5	324M	0.101	0.189	0.306	0.08763
02	KEN	149.0	44M	0.070	0.081	0.132	0.01193
03	JAM	121.0	2M	0.065	0.066	0.107	0.00074
04	GBR	97.5	65M	0.036	0.053	0.086	0.01759
05	CAN	68.0	36M	0.027	0.037	0.060	0.00987
06	GER	76.5	81M	0.020	0.042	0.068	0.02210
07	POL	47.5	38M	0.016	0.026	0.042	0.01039
08	FRA	60.0	64M	0.015	0.033	0.053	0.01746
09	ETH	76.0	101M	0.014	0.042	0.067	0.02752
10	CRO	26.0	4M	0.013	0.014	0.023	0.00113
67	BRA	25.0	206M	-0.042	0.014	0.022	0.05581
69	CHN	87.0	1.3B	-0.325	0.048	0.077	0.37244