I’m looking again at the medals standings.

Apparently, the Associated Press is sending out standings ranked by total medals won.

However, China (and the IOC) rank them by golds won.

So those of you looking at American newspapers will see the USA leading the standings …. but pretty much everywhere else China is in the lead, and it isn’t close — because China has 35 (!) golds to the USA’s 19.

Anyway, looking at the numbers, here’s why China is in the lead:

Its women.

Historically, the top female athletes have come from two types of countries: The Western democracies and, oddly, the socialist dictatorships.

Everybody else, your Third World and Africa and South America and non-Communist Asia … have trailed. Sometimes (in the case of Islamic nations, mostly) not fielding women’s teams at all.

China is taking advantage of its women. In more ways than one, if the harsh training techniques allegedly going in China are any indication.

But it’s turning out for them in the medals chase.

Of China’s 35 golds, 21 have been won by women. Of its total 61 medals, 37 have been won by women. (And one was won in a “mixed”category.)

China’s plus-14 on the women-over-men medals count is by far the biggest in the Games.

No.2? Romania, at plus 6 (7-1). Here are the next batch with a noticeable female-over-male gap: USA, at plus-five (34-29), the Netherlands at plus-five (7-2), North Korea at plus-four (5-1) and Zimbabwe at plus-four (4-0). Note: One female swimmer has all four of Zimbabwe’s medals.

Just FYI: Australia is at plus-two (16-14), and Cuba, at plus-two (5-3).

Anyway,  if women weren’t here, China’s gold lead over the U.S. would be much slimmer. It would be 14-12. And the U.S. lead in overall medals would be 29-23.

Here’s another way to look at it: Chinese women have won 21 gold medals, which represents 35.6 percent of all golds (59) that have been awarded to women so far. The U.S. and Australia are a very distant second in women’s golds with seven each.

Here’s the official weird gender stat of the Games: Weird in the other way.

The French, allegedly forward-thinking (they almost elected a woman as president last year) … have 21 medals from men, only three from women.

What’s up with that? Are girls allowed out of the house in France? Apparently not often enough to be world-class athletes.

The next biggest men-over-women medals bulge, after France’s huge 18, is a mere four, and that would be Poland (5-1).