Great Britain has won more gold medals in different sports than any country bar China – and has even bettered the USA's total at London 2012. With the host nation standing third in the overall medal table, it suggests investment in expanding the breadth of sports capable of achieving medals is paying off.

While the sports that powered Britain's surge up the medal table in Beijing have all delivered again in London, a host of new disciplines have joined them. Their success has meant Britain's Olympic gold medals have come across 10 sports, while the USA's greater total number of golds have been spread across nine different sporting disciplines.

At the Greenwich Park equestrian arena, Team GB this week won their first ever dressage gold and their first team showjumping gold since 1952. And at the Lee Valley white-water rafting course, Etienne Stott and Tim Baillie secured Britain's first ever canoe slalom gold, in the C2 class.

While the 22 gold medals have come in 10 different sports, the 541-strong team has won 48 medals in 14 sports in total. The tally has taken the team past the 19 golds and 47 overall won in Beijing, making it the most successful showing by a British team since 1908. They have also achieved the British Olympic Association's aim of winning "more medals in more sports than in over a century". Already, Britain has won gold in athletics, canoe slalom, road and track cycling, equestrian, rowing, sailing, shooting, tennis and the triathlon.

Given that Britain can still claim a first gold medal of these Games in boxing, open-water swimming, diving, hockey, BMX and taekwondo there is a good chance that they will still be ahead of the USA on the measure by the closing ceremony. Taking medals of all hues into account, Great Britain and the USA are neck and neck – both have recorded medals in 14 sports.

The spread of success will further strengthen the hand of British officials looking to ensure that the huge investment in British Olympic sport in the run up to London is continued through to the next Games in Rio. UK Sport, the body responsible for investing £312m of Lottery and exchequer funding into Olympic sports since 2008, has resolved to broaden the spread of sports able to win medals.

It will target its investment according to its ruthless "no compromise" funding formula. That means sports unlikely to win medals over the next two Games will see their funding cut but those able to prove they are capable of making the podium could get an even bigger slice of the available money.

Liz Nicholl, UK Sport's chief executive, told the Guardian that the fact that medals had been achieved across more sports than at any Games since 1908 proved its formula was working. She said it had enabled sports that have not traditionally won medals to learn from those such as sailing and rowing that have.

"The mission 2012 approach has really helped because there is a lot more learning between sports than before. There has been some really good sharing across sports and a collective ambition to do well," Nicholl said. "We knew the ambition had to be to increase the number of sports in return for the increased funding they received."

She picked out hockey and triathlon as two sports that had delivered in London as a result and said the silver medal in the men's team gymnastics underlined its impact on minority sports. UK Sport invested around £550m of Lottery and exchequer funding in British sport over the Beijing and London cycles and is keen to preserve the same level of support for the next four years.

If funding is preserved at or slightly below the current level, UK Sport has vowed to target a medal total in Rio de Janeiro that would ensure Great Britain becomes the first host in recent years not to experience a drop-off after its own Games.

Nicholl accepted the gold rush in London would make it tough, but said it could be achieved.

Lord Moynihan, the BOA chairman, said that a comprehensive review of funding for British sport should follow the Olympic Games, followed by a long-term commitment at elite and grassroots levels. "These athletes have inspired a generation, we have to translate that inspiration into participation. We have to look carefully at the delivery mechanisms across sport," he said.

"And we must come away from these Games with committed funding to enable participation and excellence to build from here and not to go backwards. We need a really detailed review at all levels."

Moynihan said that politicians "owed it to the athletes" to ensure that funding levels were maintained. "A strong financial platform doesn't deliver medals but it provides the springboard for an athlete with outstanding talent to provide their best," he said.

Team GB's chef de mission, Andy Hunt, said the focus for the remainder of the Games remained ensuring that athletes were in a position to win as many medals as possible. "It has been an extraordinary 12 days of sport and I'm massively proud of what Team GB has achieved so far. We're not done yet.

"We still have athletes who have not competed yet, [and] we want their experience to be the same as every other athlete who has gone on to. It is superb where we're up to, [but] the time for celebrating is after every athlete is done. Right now it is about making sure they have every chance of success."