It was another dominant Olympics for the United States. The US had 121 total medals by the end of the games on Sunday, a staggering 51 more than second place China. Americans tallied 46 gold medals, 19 more than the second most by Great Britain. It was hard to turn on the Olympics and not see an American somewhere on the medal stand.
The United States dominance started off quickly as the swimming events highlighted the first week of the games. Michael Phelps did not disappoint after coming out of retirement. The 31-year-old racked up six more medals this year with five of them being gold. He now has 23 gold medals, the most of any Olympian ever. He quickly dissolved any talk of him continuing his dominance in Tokyo in 2020 when asked if he would consider it. He wasn’t the only one dominating in the pool though. Katie Ledecky made a big splash as she won five total medals, four of them being gold, including a world record time in the 800m freestyle. The pool is where the US did most of the damage with 33 total medals and 16 gold.
The US made a statement on land too. 32 of American medals came in track and field events. The women’s 100m hurdles final ended with all three medals being placed on American shoulders. This was the first time that one country had ever swept a women’s track and field event. Matthew Centrowitz was able to earn the United States’ first gold medal in the 1500m since 1908. The stars of the gymnastics arena shined just as bright as they always do. Simone Biles won five total medals with four of them being gold and Aly Raisman was able to add three medals to her collection.
It’s probably not even worth mentioning but both the men and women’s basketball teams won gold in Rio. The men 8-0 with an average winning margin of just under 23 points thanks in large part to the 57-point drumming of China and 44 point win over Venezuela. After some nail biting wins over France and Serbia in pool play the team bounced back to beat Serbia by 30 in the gold medal match. Sunday’s win gave the team their 26th straight win in Olympic play and 76th straight win overall. Although Steph Curry and LeBron James both sat out of the Olympics for rest, it was clear that—with their star power— the team could win handily if they played unselfish basketball.
With Russia presumably having a larger part in the 2020 Tokyo games the US dominance might not be as present. We also have some new sports to look forward to such as surfing and skating including the resurfacing of baseball in the Olympics.
