United States, champion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

China threatened until the last minute to repeat the feat of Beijing 2008, when it topped the Olympic medal table. Four years ago it came close, falling one gold short of the United States. In the most recent event in Paris, however, the U.S. delegation reached the gold it needed to top the medal table with 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze medals.

The United States started the last day of the Games with one medal less, but with a chance to finish first thanks to the finals of several women's categories such as basketball, volleyball and wrestling in the 76 kg category. Five medals were up for grabs at the last minute, and China could aim for three.

The defeat of the women's water polo team during the afternoon in Paris left the U.S. delegation with the opportunity to win only two golds to match China (if China did not add more first-place finishes). Jennifer Valente won gold in the omnium and closed the gap to one. By one point (67-66), the women's basketball team won gold for the eighth consecutive time and showed American dominance in the Games.

With that gold at the last minute, USA tied China's 40 golds, so the silver medals were then counted to see who comes first. The U.S. had 44, China, 27.

It is true that the United States is the country that took the most athletes to the Paris 2024 Olympics (592), which increased the chances that they would win more medals. However, the events are the same for all, so it was performance and effort that rewarded them.

Public figures such as Katie Ledecky in swimming, Noah Lyles in track and field, Scottie Scheffler in golf and Simone Biles in gymnastics led the United States to the top in the French capital. Also teams like the Dream Team in basketball. Paris 2024 makes it a total number of 19 times that the Stars and Stripes have finished on top of the medal table in the 30 editions that have been held since Athens 1896 marked the start of the modern era of the Olympic Games.

In Los Angeles 2028, taking advantage of the fact that it will serve as host, the United States will seek to continue dominating the biggest sporting event on the planet.

An unofficial count

Although the Olympic Committee has a medal counter by country on its website, officially the event is a competition between athletes, not nations.

Article 6 of the Olympic Charter reads: "The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes, in individual or team events, and not between countries."

The Olympic medal tally by country is usually taken, however, as a measure of success or failure at the country level. And they are used to consecrate an - unofficial - champion of the games.

Specialized journalist Fernando Carreño explains that this general medal tally was quickly used by governments as a propaganda tool and a means of international competition. During the Cold War, for example, it became "one more front," he says in a recent article.

Only golds or overall?

Being an official score, there are different ways of counting the medal tally. While some media or countries choose to consider only the golds (and if there is a tie, as in Paris, move to silver), others look at the overall medal tally (golds plus silvers and bronzes).

In the latter, the United States remains the great dominator: it has 126 medals in total. China, meanwhile, won 91, followed by Great Britain in third place with 65 and France in fourth place with 64.

The last time North America did not top the overall medal tally was in 1992, when a team made up of several former Soviet republics came out on top with 112 medals. They also surpassed them in gold medals, with 45.

Thus, USA also extended its lead in the overall medal count in the history of the competition. It surpasses its closest rival by more than 1,600 medals. For the time being, its lead is secure: in second place is the Soviet Union.