Final Medal Count:The United States ties China for the most gold medals with 40.
Final Medal Count
In the last Olympic event in Paris, the U.S. women’s basketball team defeated France on Sunday to earn gold. With that victory, the Americans tied China for the most gold medals with 40.
With 126 medals overall, the United States triumphed handily. The Americans took home 40 gold medals in addition to 42 silver and 44 bronze.
U.S. women’s coach Cheryl Reeve stated, “I saw the medal count beforehand, so I knew,” adding that she had thought to herself, “That’s what we need — more pressure.”
The International Olympic Committee announced on Sunday that Romanian Ana Barbosu will get the bronze medal that had been awarded to Jordan Chiles in the women’s floor final, costing the United States a bronze. Officials from the US Olympics are pleading.
China won 27 silver and 24 bronze medals, good for second place in the overall medal competition. Japan finished in a distant third place with a total of 45 gold medals. Despite winning 65 medals altogether, just 14 of those were gold, placing Great Britain eighth overall.
The last time the United States didn’t lead the gold medal standings was in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where they lost to China 48–36.
Over the past eight Summer Games, the United States has earned the most medals overall. The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona marked the last occasion the United States had not won the most medals. The athletes from the former Soviet republics who made up the “Unified Team” took home the most gold medals (45) and overall medal count (112), with the Americans coming in second place with 37 gold and 108 medals.
Over the previous few days, the United States and China had been competing for the most gold medals. Going into Sunday, the last day of competition, the U.S. was behind China 39–38.
Li Wenwen won the gold medal in the women’s +81kg weightlifting on Sunday, giving China an early gold medal. Following with a gold, the United States’ Jennifer Valente successfully defended her women’s omnium cycling track title.
When it came down to it, the United States won gold in women’s basketball for the seventh time in a row.
On Sunday, the US earned five medals in all, including a silver in the women’s 76kg freestyle wrestling, a bronze in the men’s water polo, and a silver as a team in women’s volleyball.
The United States defeated China with 39 gold medals to 38 at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. In total, the US took home 113 medals from Tokyo. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Americans outperformed Great Britain and China, winning 46 gold medals to their 27.
The United States wins the most medals at the Olympics in Paris.
With an astounding 126 medals won at the Olympics in Paris, including 40 gold ones, the United States emerged victorious.
In the end, China and the United States deadlocked with forty gold medals apiece in the battle for national pride over gold medals, which are seen by many as the most sought prize.
China has solidified its position as America’s main Summer Games opponent with 91 medals total.
Russia, which was formerly a dominant force in the world arena for both the Summer and Winter Olympics, fielded a meager fifteen competitors and barely registered a single medal.
What was the U.S. method? Track and swimming
America’s Olympic machine fired on two cylinders in Paris once more: track and swimming.
Under the direction of Katie Ledecky and Torri Huske, American swimmers won 28 medals in the pool, including 8 gold.
American competitors were even more dominant on the track, taking home 34 medals in total, including 14 gold.
About half of all the medals won by the United States came from those two sports alone.
In comparison, China won eight gold medals in diving, five gold medals in shooting, five gold medals in table tennis, and five gold medals in wrestling.
Thus, even though the two nations compete against each other for medals, they frequently do so in completely different sports.
Other lessons learned: Australia outperformed France.
It’s not unusual for the nation hosting the Olympics to perform well at the Summer Games, and France was no exception.
The teenage French swimmer Léon Marchand, who won four gold and one bronze medal at the Olympics, was one of the breakout stars.
France took home 64 medals in total, 16 of which were gold.
Australia is another nation that has performed well beyond its size. Despite having a small population of only 26 million, the Australians won 53 medals, including 18 gold.
That puts Australia in a class apart when it comes to medal wins per capita.
One last thing to consider. This year, the International Olympic Committee sent a team of athletes who are refugees to represent people who are internally displaced worldwide.
Cindy Djanjeu Ngamba, a Cameroonian, took up the team’s lone bronze medal in boxing.
