Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs No matter what happens in the women’s basketball gold medal game at the Paris 2024 Olympics, China will make history as the only country, other than the United States, to win the most gold medals in the Summer Games away from its home soil.China leads Team USA, 40-39, with just the women’s basketball gold still up for grabs on Sunday. The U.S. has won the last seven gold medals in the sport and is expected to defeat France in the final. If Team USA defeats France, the 40-40 tie between the U.S. and China would mark the first tie atop the gold table in Summer Olympics history.While the gold medal count was close throughout in Paris, Team USA ran away with the overall table for the seventh time in the last eight Summer Games. Americans have reached the podium 125 times this summer, with China well behind with 91 overall medals. By comparison, Great Britain’s 65 medals are good for third overall.The margin between the U.S. and China also proved razor-thin in Tokyo in 2021 with the U.S. winning the gold tally, 39-38. Since 2000, China is the only country within 30 gold medals of Team USA.
China’s Li Wenwen celebrates during the women’s +81kg weightlifting event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday.
China’s Li Wenwen celebrates during the women’s +81kg weightlifting event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday.
AFP via GETTY images
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, has now reached heights as a global sporting superpower only attained by the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.The 2028 Summer Games will be held in Los Angeles as Team USA will look to dominate on its home turf.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.In Paris, China won a whopping, eight golds in diving and five apiece in shooting, table tennis and weightlifting. It also claimed three boxing golds and won two golds in five additional sports.China also won a historic gold medal in the men’s 4×100 medley relay last Sunday, a race the Americans had claimed at every Olympics since 1960—other than the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.China has now clinched its second, first-place in the Summer Olympics. The country has finished second on three occasions and third twice.This is a developing news story and will be updated with more information.
