Rio de Janeiro: Defeats in sports dominated by China at previous Olympics have left the country in an unfamiliar third place on the medals table, with some predicting that Rio 2016 could witness the lowest haul in two decades.

While Australia's underwhelming performance in Rio has prompted scrutiny of Olympic funding, Chinese athletes have so far failed to defend gold medals in some of their strongest events, such as badminton and diving. China sat behind the United States (28 golds) and Britain (19 golds) after 11 days of competition.

"You're kidding me? The country which has never finished above China is about to," state news agency Xinhua said on its official English-language Twitter account on Monday, alongside a photo of the medals tally. The tweet has since been deleted.

The ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily expressed particular disappointment at the performance of Chinese gymnasts, winners of just two bronze medals.