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By Gabe Whisnant
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With one week left in the Paris 2024 Olympics, China has a chance to make history as the only modern country, apart from the United States, to top the gold medal table without the advantage of competing on its home soil.
After strong performances in diving and shooting events, and a stunning triumph in men's swimming, China is currently tied with Team USA with 19 gold medals. Host country France and Australia follow with 12 gold medals apiece.
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, is now looking to reach heights as a global sporting superpower only attained by the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.
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As attention shifts to track and field events where American athletes often dominate, Team USA will have to make up some ground after failing to achieve a single gold medal in men's swimming until Bobby Finke's triumph Sunday afternoon in the 1500m freestyle.
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U.S. men's and women's swimmers typically win at least 10 gold medals during the summer games. Between the 2012 and 2020 summer games, with Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky swimming at their peaks, Team USA won 43 total swimming gold medals.
This year, they won eight — highlighted by Ledecky's gold win Wednesday in the women's 1500-meter freestyle and her training partner Finke's world-record effort on Sunday, the final day for swimming in Paris.
Finke's victory preserved the streak for U.S. men's swimming of at least one gold medal in each Olympics held since 1900.
China won a historic gold medal in the men's 4x100 medley relay on Sunday, a race the Americans had claimed at every Olympics since 1960 — other than the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.
China captured the men's 4x100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members — Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun — on the team listed among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. The swimmers were allowed to compete in Paris after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated.
The World Anti-Doping Agency stood by its ruling to clear the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication.
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Caeleb Dressel and the Americans took silver, 0.55 seconds behind the Chinese, while a Leon Marchand-led France grabbed the bronze.
"We have to put our trust in WADA," Dressel told reporters Sunday when asked if he considered it a fair race. "I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it because a lot of that is out of my control. I don't work for WADA, there's nothing I can do. ..."I'm trying to race really tough, and they were the better team, and it's as simple as that."
Team USA finished strong in the pool Sunday with the women's 4x100 relay team of Tori Huske, Lilly King, Regan Smith and Gretchen Walsh also setting a world record in cruising to gold.
Despite the slip in swimming gold medals, the U.S. won 28 total swimming medals, including 13 silvers. Australia's swimmers were next closest with 18, while China tallied 14.
On the track on Saturday, Team USA earned just one gold as Ryan Crouser collected a three-peat in the shot put. Crouser held off American Joe Kovacs who got silver. With expectations to reach the top of the podium, Sha'Carri Richardson, in the women's 100-meter dash, along with the U.S. 4x400 mixed relay team, each claimed silver medals.
Team USA's Noah Lyles claimed the men's 100 meters in dramatic fashion, tying the gold medal count with China at 19-19 as of Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. Lyles' win by .005 seconds over Kishane Thompson of Jamaica was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980, according to the Associated Press.
America's Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81.
Over the course of the first week in Paris, China exuded dominance on the diving board and shooting range where they have won eight of their 19 total gold medals.
"They were pretty much flawless, which was amazing," Thomas Daley of Great Britain told NPR on Monday after taking silver behind Chinese divers, Lian Junjie and Yang Hao, in the men's synchronized 10-meter platform final. "Sometimes in training we watch how they dive, and it gives us a little bit of hope. But then they turn it on."
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China won four golds in shooting events to help pad its early lead.
"I had good control over myself today," Xie Yu told NPR after winning gold in the 10-meter air pistol men's final last Sunday. "I woke up calm, without any stress. I was a little bit nervous but didn't have any fear."
China added three gold medals in table tennis and two each in swimming and badminton.
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.
As of 2022, China has finished first place in the Summer Olympics once, second three times, and third twice.
"We must resolutely ensure we are first in gold medals," Gou Zhongwen, the head of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said before the Tokyo Olympics, which were held in the summer of 2021 due to the global COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
But even with some measures of underperformance in Paris, thus far, Team USA has the time and events to make up ground. There are still a host of individual and team competitions left in the summer games in which the U.S. won gold medals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or perennially dominates.
Medals will be awarded in 25 events on Sunday as the 2024 Paris Olympics hit their midpoint.
As of Sunday at 5 p.m. ET, the U.S. leads the overall Paris 2024 Olympics table by a substantial margin with 71 total medals with China (45 medals) and France (44 medals) following behind.
Newsweek has emailed the U.S. Olympic Committee Sunday morning for comment.
Update: 8/4/2024, 4:44 p.m.: This article has been updated with the current medal count and more information.
Update: 8/4/2024, 3:55 p.m.: This article has been updated with the current medal count and more information.
Update: 8/4/2024, 1:55 p.m.: This article has been updated with the current medal count and details about Team USA's gold medal in the women's 4x100 relay.
Update: 8/4/2024, 1:02 p.m.: This article has been updated with the current medal count and details about Bobby Finke's gold medal effort Sunday for Team USA in the 1500m freestyle event.
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