The United States leads China in the medal table, but here’s what’s interesting: The last final was decisive

Paris – The axis of the world risked turning at around 5.30pm in Bercy, the last stadium of the last final of the last Paris Games, that stadium Women’s BasketballThe French Gabe WilliamsZero seconds and a few tenths from the siren, a shot towards the American basket, 67-64 in favor of the USA team. The ball goes in, the building explodes and then freezes on the instant replay: the shot was from 2, not from 3, and Williams stepped on the 6.75-meter arc. No extra time, gold for Diana Taurasi (sixth title, a record) and the USA. Not a gold like any other gold: the 40th, just like China. 40-40, the USA is ahead of the silver medalists (44-27), and therefore first in this kind of unofficial world sports ranking that is prepared every four years at the end of the Olympic Games.

Use the first force

The leading power in sports, still on its last legs as in Tokyo, remains the United States. Since the existence of this dual system, that is, since Athens 2004, China has only advanced once, at the local Olympics (2008), when it won 51 golds to 36. In terms of quantity, the United States has not always been defeated: 126 to 91. But many new things have happened in these Olympics under Putin’s rule (the mixed Russian-Belarusian team won only a gold medal in the elastic trampoline of artistic gymnastics). In fact, the medals won by the Russians were naturalized elsewhere and spread under different flags: the medals of Russian origin, for example, are the first two medals for Albania in its history, the bronzes of Dudayev and Valiev in combat.

Changes to the medal table

Russia’s absence from the medal table has clearly benefited many. France (64 medals), fifth in the overall standings, is first in Europe after the United States, China, Japan and Australia. Italy is still in the top ten: in Tokyo, with the Russians present, it took tenth place, and now it has moved up one place and overtook Germany. South Korea appears in the G8, first in the world in an interesting ranking that the New York Times has challenged, namely the classification of weapons sports (archery, shooting, etc.). The United States dominates individual sports (98 medals), but also team sports (12 gold, compared to 7 for Great Britain). In juried sports, China stands out (14 gold, compared to 4 for the Americans). In one-on-one ball sports, China and the United States are 6-4. In running disciplines (athletics, swimming, cycling, etc.), the United States is unbeatable: 23 gold medals, compared to 14 for Australia. The best performing country with a population of less than 10 million was New Zealand (10 golds), and among the countries below the poverty line, Uzbekistan (8 golds) excelled. Ukraine showed its flag with 3 golds and 12 podiums. Israel also performed well (1 gold and 7 medals in total, the record was 4) and above all Algeria (2 golds and 1 bronze) and for the first time they saw their athlete win from Botswana, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Guatemala and the representative of the refugee team (with boxer Cindy Njamba), Cape Verde and of course Albania on the podium. North Korea is back again (6 podiums).

92 countries medal

There were 92 medal-winning nations (including Russia and Belarus) out of 204 participants. In Tokyo there were 93. India is still struggling (1 silver, 5 bronze and 1 gold in Tokyo). Compared to three years ago, visits from Syria, San Marino, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Nigeria have increased.