Katie Ledecky scored two of America’s forty Olympic gold medals in the Paris Summer Games. The U.S. tied with China for the most gold, but the U.S. dominated the overall count with 126 medals.
Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
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Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
PARIS — The United States came out on top in the Olympic medal count in Paris, with a stunning total of 126 medals, including forty gold.
The fight for national bragging rights over gold medals — considered by many countries to be the most coveted prize — came down to the wire and in the end China and the U.S. tied with forty apiece.
China, with 91 overall medals, has cemented itself as America’s chief rival in the Summer Games.
Meanwhile, Russia, once a world powerhouse at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, was nearly invisible in Paris, fielding only about fifteen athletes and barely registering in the total medal count.
How did the U.S. do it? Swimming and track
Once again in Paris, America’s Olympic engine fired on two cylinders: swimming and track.
In the pool, U.S. swimmers led by Katie Ledecky and Torri Huske, racked up 28 medals, including 8 gold.
On the track, American athletes were even more dominant winning 34 total medals, 14 gold.
Those two sporting disciplines alone accounted for roughly half of the total U.S. medal tally.
China, by contrast, garnered most of its gold medals from diving (8 gold), shooting (5 gold), table tennis (5 gold) and wrestling (5 gold).
So while the two countries go head-to-head in the medal count, they often do…