Paris Olympics: How race for bragging rights between sporting powerhouses USA and China unfolded on final day

The top spot on the medal tally at the Tokyo Olympics came down to one gold, the United States edging China 39 to 38 on the last day of the Games. If one thought that the tussle for bragging rights between the two sporting superpowers couldn’t get any tighter, they were wrong.

In the French capital, it came down to the last medal event, and the last shot. The USA tied with China on 40 gold by winning the women’s basketball event in a final that itself was decided by a single point at the last second. But by virtue of having more medals of the other two hues, the Americans got their noses in front, only just.

At one point, on the penultimate day of the Olympics, China had a lead of four on the medal tally, before the USA got close after a memorable night of athletics action, including winning the two 4×400 relays.

Going into Sunday, they trailed China by one, which became two when Li Wenwen won the women’s +81kg weightlifting gold. When the Americans lost the women’s volleyball final to Italy and Kennedy Alexis Blades went down to Japan’s Yuka Kagami in the women’s 76kg wrestling finale, it seemed as if they would fall short and China would finish on top for the first time since it hosted the Games in Beijing in 2008.

But Jennifer Valente brought a gold in the women’s omnium cycling event, setting the stage for the USA’s women hoopsters to get the job done, barely.

Looking at the bigger picture, they brought medals in as many as 34 sports, with 14 of them fetching gold. Athletics contributed 14 of them and swimming eight, despite being pushed all the way by Australia and France. There were some unexpected contributions as well, Olivia Reeves’s gold in women’s 71kg weightlifting was USA’s first in several decades.

The American male wrestlers drew a blank as far as gold is concerned, while their women took home two.

China benefited greatly from their total dominance of table tennis and diving and, to a lesser degree, weightlifting. They also took five gold medals from shooting and three from boxing, though they had to be satisfied with just two from their badminton squad. A total of 23 sports fetched them medals, with 14 bringing gold, including their first in women’s singles tennis for Zheng Qinwen.

It was also a good Olympics for Japan (20 gold medals), Australia (18) and hosts France (16) as they finished in the top five of the medal table.

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