PARIS — The U.S. and China each won 40 gold medals in the first Summer Games draw in Olympic history, with the Americans pulling into a tie Sunday with victory in the last event, women’s basketball.
The U.S. equaled China on the strength of its heart-stopping 67-66 victory over France in a shockingly close game for the women’s hoops gold.
China entered Sunday with a 39-38 edge on the U.S., with the Americans appearing to have a slight advantage as the U.S. was going for its eighth consecutive women’s basketball gold and second straight women’s volleyball title.
A flurry of results unfolded in the midafternoon to shape the final standings.
- China’s Li Wenwen won gold in women’s heavyweight weightlifting in what could have been a death knell for American hopes to capture overall gold.
- U.S. hopes were dimmed further when Chicago native Kennedy Blades, who made a surprising run to the gold medal wrestling match, lost to 76-kg rival Yuka Kagami of Japan.
- In a stunning blow, Italy spiked the U.S. out of the gym with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 blowout volleyball victory.
- Decorated cyclist Jennifer Valente, of San Diego, bailed out the U.S. by defending her gold in the women’s omnium.
That set it up for the heavily favored U.S. women to take care of business, which they barely did to win their eighth straight gold.
“I wasn’t aware until someone told me after the game, but I’m happy that we won for ourselves and USA basketball, but also for the entire Team USA delegation so we can be tied,” WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart told reporters after the gold medal game.
U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve wryly smiled and said she had known what was at stake coming into the France game but implied that she did not tell players.
“I saw the medal count beforehand, I did,” she said, smiling. “That’s what we need, more pressure.”
The last time the U.S. didn’t win the most summer golds was in Beijing in 2008, when the hosts edged the Americas in top-podium visits, 48-36.
While there had been no gold medal ties in Summer Games history, there have been three draws in the Winter Olympics.
The most recent draw was between Norway and Germany, each winning 14 golds in PyeongChang 2018.
The U.S. still came out with the most overall medals, taking home 126 from Paris this year.
The U.S. hasn’t failed to win the most medals since 1992, when the “Unified Team,” athletes from the former Soviet Union republics, won 112 medals, including 45 golds. The Americans made 108 podium visits in Barcelona, with 37 of them on the top step.
The 40 golds out of 329 events work out to taking top honors 12.1 % of the time. That is up slightly from Tokyo (11.4%) but down from Rio (15%) and London (15.8%).
America’s effort in Paris might be best exemplified by U.S. swimmers who won the most medals and golds but came away feeling that they had left hardware on the deck.
While veteran Katie Ledecky was the U.S. star here, with two golds, a silver and a bronze, the show was stolen by Frenchman Léon Marchand, who scored four golds, a bronze and four Olympic records, and Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh, with three golds and a silver.
Despite the athletic rivalry, the U.S. and China don’t match up in many events. One of the few places where they face off on equal footing is in the pool.
One of the most important moments of the 40-40 draw came a week ago Sunday, when China won the 4×100-meter medley relay on the strength of 100 freestyle ace Pan Zhanle, who edged out the silver medalist Americans.
“It wasn’t a bad meet at all,” U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel said of his team.
“The goal when we come to the Olympics and the world championships is to win gold medals. There are other countries that are getting very dominant — Australia and U.S. are the two most recognized. But from these Games, I saw a lot from Italy, China, France. So the wealth has just been spread around. I don’t think we’re getting any worse, per se.”
A host of countries that normally don’t get within a javelin’s throw of the podium produced several medalists these past two weeks.
Before it landed in Paris, Israel held only 13 Summer Olympic medals — collected seven here.
Ecuador won five medals, more than doubling its overall summer total.
Kyrgyzstan made six podium trips, which is impressive given the central Asian nation came to Paris with only seven Olympic medals in history.
Before Paris 2024, Moldova had won six in national history. The tiny former Soviet republic made four podium trips in Paris.
David K. Li reported from Paris and Sean Nevin from London.