No matter what happens in the women’s basketball gold medal game at the Paris 2024 Olympics, China will make history as the only country, other than the United States and the former Soviet Union, to top the most gold medals in the Summer Games away from its home soil.
China leads Team USA, 40-39, with just the women’s basketball gold still up for grabs on Sunday. The U.S. has won the last seven gold medals in the sport and is expected to defeat France in the final. However, with seven minutes left in the third quarter, France leads Team USA, 34-25, in front of a loud home crowd.
If Team USA defeats France, the 40-40 tie between the U.S. and China would mark the first tie atop the gold table in Summer Olympics history. The only Olympics gold medal tie occurred in the Winter Games in 1948 between Norway and Sweden.
While the gold medal count was close throughout in Paris, Team USA ran away with the overall table for the seventh time in the last eight Summer Games. Americans have reached the podium 125 times this summer, with China well behind with 91 overall medals. By comparison, Great Britain’s 65 medals are good for third overall.
The margin between the U.S. and China also proved razor-thin in Tokyo in 2021 with the U.S. winning the gold tally, 39-38. Since 2000, China is the only country within 30 gold medals of Team USA.
China’s Li Wenwen celebrates during the women’s +81kg weightlifting event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday.
China’s Li Wenwen celebrates during the women’s +81kg weightlifting event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday.
AFP via GETTY images
The U.S. has topped the gold medal table 18 times since 1896, including four times on its home soil. The former Soviet Union accomplished that feat seven times, including one home Olympics and once as the Unified Team in Barcelona in 1992. China, which last topped the gold medal table in 2008 in Beijing, has now reached heights as a global sporting superpower only attained by the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.
China’s entry into the elite club of Olympic great powers comes as it challenges U.S dominance of the world much as the Soviet Union did during the Cold War. China’s financial, military and diplomatic power now match its status as the world’s second largest economy and world’s second most populous country.
“We are a very rich country, and we are able to invest heavily into sports training. But other countries – like China – are also becoming richer. As that happens, they will also be able to better train their athletes and become increasingly competitive with the U.S.,” David Berri, a professor of economics at Southern Utah University, told Newsweek via email Saturday. “All of this means that in the future – as more and more nations develop and get richer – the Olympics will be increasingly competitive.”
The Chinese Olympic Committee in its current form has only been recognized since 1979. China has made giant strides on the Summer Olympics stage since it won just five gold medals in 1988. By 2008, when Beijing hosted the summer games for the first time, China won 48 gold medals and topped the table.
China’s summer Olympic success is largely derived from six sports: table tennis, shooting, diving, badminton, gymnastics and weightlifting. According to a 2021 New York Times article, more than two-thirds of China’s gold medals have come courtesy of female winners.
In Paris, China won a whopping, eight golds in diving and five apiece in shooting, table tennis and weightlifting. It also claimed three boxing golds and won two golds in five additional sports.
China also won a historic gold medal in the men’s 4×100 medley relay last Sunday, a race the Americans had claimed at every Olympics since 1960—other than the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.
China has now clinched its second, first-place in the Summer Olympics. The country has finished second on three occasions and third twice.
The 2028 Summer Games will be held in Los Angeles as Team USA will look to dominate on its home turf.
This is a developing news story and will be updated with more information.
Update: 8/11/2024, 10:37 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information.
Update: 8/11/2024, 10:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to clarify that China will make history in 2024 as the only country, other than the United States and the former Soviet Union, to top the most gold medals in the Summer Games away from its home soil.
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Publish date : 2024-08-11 03:14:00
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