The United States, the Olympic king

Since Athens (Greece) held the first Olympic Games of the contemporary era in 1896, the United States has hosted the world's biggest sporting event four times: St. Louis 1904, Los Angeles 1932, Los Angeles 1984 and Atlanta 1996.

In 2028, Los Angeles will host the Olympics again, completing the set of five U.S. Olympic venues and solidifying the country's status as the most frequent host of the -Summer- Olympic Games, followed by the United Kingdom (three times).

In addition, in the 29 editions held since the Athens 1896 Olympic Games, the United States has been the country with the highest number of medals on 18 occasions. The USSR (on 6 occasions), France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Unified Team (the delegation that participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and which brought together athletes from all the former Soviet republics except Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and China managed to beat the Americans in the remaining 11 Olympics.

The United States dominates in most Olympic disciplines

It is not only the United States that leads the field. It also leads in the medal count. No other country comes close to the 2,641 medals - 1,063 golds, 835 silvers and 743 bronzes - that the Stars and Stripes have to their credit. Far behind are the 1,010 achieved by the former Soviet Union followed by the 931 of the United Kingdom, the 797 of Germany and the 772 of France.

There are modalities in which the United States finds no opposition. Where the national team stands out most is in athletics, in which it has won a total of 838 medals to date -346 gold, 272 silver and 220 bronze medals. In addition, US athletes hold 11 Olympic records: six in the men's category and five in the women's.

In swimming, the Americans will be looking to add more medals to the 583 they already have -257 golds, 182 silvers and 144 bronzes-. The US has 15 Olympic records, eight in the men's category and seven in the women's category. Swimmers Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky will lead the team in Paris.

There are five other modalities in which the U.S. exceeds 100 medals: jumping (141), wrestling (133), gymnastics (119), boxing (117) and pulling (116). In basketball, no national team has surpassed the 31 U.S. Olympic medals, 26 of them gold. The Dream Team will seek its 27th in this edition. There are other modalities, such as men's soccer, in which the national team does not know what it is to climb to the top of the podium, although it does have a silver and a bronze.