In the inaugural Summer Games draw in Olympic history, the United States and China each took home 40 gold medals. On Sunday, America’s win in the final event, women’s basketball, forced a tie with China.
On the strength of its thrilling 67-66 triumph over France in an incredibly close game for the women’s hoops championship, America tied China.
China led the United States 39–38 going into Sunday, although it seemed like the Americans had a small advantage because they were aiming for their second consecutive women’s volleyball championship and eighth consecutive women’s basketball gold.
The last day saw a flurry of results that shaped the final standings.
Li Wenwen of China emerged victorious in the women’s heavyweight weightlifting competition, potentially spellbinding American dreams of winning the overall gold medal.
American hopes were further dashed when Kennedy Blades, a wrestler from Chicago who had unexpectedly advanced to the gold medal match, was defeated by Japanese competitor Yuka Kagami in the 76 kg weight class.
Then, in a stunning upset, Italy crushed the Americans in volleyball, winning 25-18, 25-20, and 25-17.
However, Jennifer Valente, a gifted cyclist from San Diego, saved the United States by defending her gold in the women’s omnium.
This allowed the heavily favored American women to focus on their task, and they narrowly won their eighth consecutive gold medal.
In Beijing in 2008, the hosts defeated the United States 48–36 in top-podium visits, marking the last time the country did not win the most summer golds.
In the history of the Summer Games, there have never been any gold medal ties, but in the Winter Olympics, there have been three draws.
The most recent standoff occurred in PyeongChang 2018 between Norway and Germany, who each took home 14 gold medals.
Despite this, the United States emerged victorious overall, winning 126 medals at Paris 2024.
Since 1992, when athletes from the former Soviet Union republics formed the “Unified Team” and won 112 medals, including 45 gold ones, the United States has consistently won the most medals. In Barcelona, the Americans visited the podium 108 times, 37 times on the top step.
Out of 329 events, 40 golds equate to 12.1% of the total.
The percentage of gold is slightly higher than in Tokyo (11.4%) but lower than in Rio (15%) and London (15.8%).
The American swimmers who won the most gold medals and medals in Paris may serve as the greatest example of the country’s effort, even though they left some hardware on the deck.
With two golds, a silver, and a bronze, seasoned American Katie Ledecky was the star of the show, but Frenchman Leon Marchand—who also happened to set four Olympic records—and Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh—who took home three golds and a silver—trumped her.
Over the past two weeks, several nations that don’t often place close to the top of the podium have unexpectedly produced multiple medalists.
Israel only possessed 13 Summer Olympic medals prior to arriving in Paris, and it won seven of them here.
With five medals, Ecuador more than doubled its total for the summer.
Considering that Kyrgyzstan only had seven Olympic medals in its history when it arrived in Paris, six podium finishes are quite impressive.
The Republic of Moldova had won six in its history prior to Paris 2024. Four podium appearances by the tiny former Soviet Republic were made in Paris.