By Sophie Tuan
The Olympics are the pinnacle of athletic performance, where elite athletes travel from all around the globe to compete on the biggest stage in the world. From the most watched sports like track and field, swimming, and gymnastics to the more obscure events like break dancing, athletes compete for the honor of winning gold. This year at the 2024 Paris Olympics the United States brought home 126 total medals — the most of any country — 40 of which were gleaming gold.
Down on the track the US won 14 gold medals (11 track, 3 field) with athletes like Noah Lyles, Quincy Hall, and Sydney McLaughlin dominating the sprinting events.
- Noah Lyles, the 100m superstar, ran a nail-biting race this summer at the Paris Olympics after finishing in first by only 0.005 seconds. After running a personal best with a blazing time of 9.784 seconds, Lyles narrowly beat Jamaican runner Kishan Thomas, clinching a gold medal in one of the most coveted events in track and field.
- Sydney McLaughlin-Leverone dominated the 400m hurdles event as she breezed through the finish line, breaking her own world record for the fifth time with a time of 50.37 seconds. After winning gold in her star event Sydney also went on to compete in the women’s 4x400m relay winning another gleaming gold medal.
- With an impressive comeback, Quincey Hall clawed his way back from 4th place to a barely-first place finish in the men’s 400m event running a 43.40 second lap. After getting passed by multiple runners halfway through the race Hall fought with grit and sheer willpower as he beat Matthew Hudson-Smith, who was favored to win the race, from Great Britain, and walked away with a gold medal.
While the US controlled the track one swimmer in particular dominated down on the pool deck: Katie Ledecky.
- Known for pulling so far ahead of the other swimmers that she looks like she’s swimming alone, Katie Ledecky continued her gold medal streak in Paris as she won the 1500m freestyle event, breaking her Olympic record and beating her closest opponent by over 10 seconds. Later, Ledecky also won gold in the women’s 800m freestyle, thus breaking the record for the most gold medals of any female American swimmer.
On the gymnastics floor, the USA women’s team — consisting of Jordan Chiles, Sunni Lee, Jade Carey, Helzy Rivera, and Simone Biles — got their redemption as they took back their number one spot in the world after placing second in the all-around competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
- After tragically missing gold 4 years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, Team USA was ready to redeem themselves and reclaim their spot at the top of the podium. As all the athletes competed in their respective events (vault, uneven bars, floor, and beam) the team’s combined scores put the team in the perfect position to reclaim gold.
- The GOAT in gymnastics aka Simone Biles not only won gold in the team event at the Paris games, but she also had two more first-place finishes in the individual all-around and vault events. The 2024 Olympics marks Bile’s third Olympic debut and her newest gold additions bring her Olympic gold medal collection to a total of 7 and overall Olympic medal count to 11.
With NBA all-stars like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Lebron James, the United States men’s 5v5 basketball team became renowned not only across the country but across the world in their most recent debut at the Paris Olympics.
- This year USA’s dream team went undefeated winning all six of their games and beating France in the finals. With the final score of 98-87 reflecting a hard-fought victory, the US continued their gold medal performance for the fifth Olympic games in a row.
This past summer Olympics has displayed the athletic prowess of US competitors across a multitude of sports. The proof is in the pudding, as the United States won the most medals by far, out of all the countries, and 40 gleaming golds.