Coursing through the 2024 Paris Olympics

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The Paris Olympics concluded on Aug. 11, with the United States securing the medal count for the fourth consecutive Games. Second place was China, which tied for the most gold medals (40) but fell short in the silver medal count (44 U.S. silvers to China’s 27). China won the medal count at the 2008 games as the host nation. The medal race came down to the final competition, the Women’s Basketball Gold Medal game, where the U.S. continued their seventh Olympic win streak and took down France (67-66). The U.S. Women’s Basketball team has not lost an Olympic game since 1992, and they are now on a 61-game win streak. 

Breaking the medal table down by sports shows some interesting patterns among the top nations at the Games. The United States won the Swimming, Athletics, Basketball, and Artistic Gymnastics medal tables. Meanwhile, China swept the diving and ping-pong events and won the medal tables for weight lifting and shooting.

In swimming, the United States won eight gold medals, Australia finished second with seven, and China was fifth with two. French swimmer Léon Marchand, who won 4 individual gold medals at his home Olympics, put France into third place. The United States dominated in Athletics, winning 14 gold and 34 total medals to Kenya’s 4 gold and 11 total. The United States swept both Men’s and Women’s Basketball games, beating France in both gold medal games. Artistic Gymnastics saw the return of Simone Biles, who led the United States to gold in the team final. Simone also picked up a gold medal in the All Around. The Men’s Artistic Gymnastics had their best showing since 2008, winning a bronze medal in the Team Final. 

China became the first nation to sweep all eight diving events and continued their dominance inTable Tennis, winning all five golds. China also performed incredibly well in Shooting, winning five golds. Despite an injury that cost them a chance at six weightlifting golds, China still led the Medal Table, beating Bulgaria and the United States by five.

The United States won one more gold medal than they did at the Tokyo Games, and China won two more golds. Japan remained in third place on the Medal Table, winning 20 gold medals in Paris to their 27 at their home games.

The top seven medalists by number of medals were all from the swimming discipline. The most medals won by any individual was of Zhang Yufei from  China, who won six total medals (one silver and five bronze). The second and third top medalists both hold NCAA connections, they were Léon Marchand of France (four gold and one bronze) and Torri Huske of the United States (three gold and two silver). The highest number of medals won by a non-swimmer was four, three golds and one silver, for Simone Biles.

There were some other notable performances by athletes with NCAA affiliations. Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh are two of the most successful NCAA athletes in Swimming and Diving. Kate Douglass, a recentl graduate from the University of Virginia, left Paris as an individual Olympic gold medalist in the 200 Breaststroke and 400 Medley Relay, as well as a silver medalist in the 4x100 Freestyle Relay and 200 Individual Medley. Gretchen Walsh was one of Douglass' teammates at the University of Virginia who alsoleft Paris as the Olympic Record holder in the 100 Fly, as well as the world record holder in both the 4x100 Mixed Medley Relay and the 4x100 Medley Relay. Walsh won two gold medals and two silver medals.

On the international stage, Mondo Duplantis set the world record in the pole vault event at a height of 6.25 meters.  Duplantis and Sprinter Sha’Cari Richardson were NCAA Champions when both were at Louisiana State University in 2018 and now they both leave the Paris Olympics as Olympic champions.

Among historic connections to the NCAA, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won an NCAA championship in March of 2018 in the 400-meter hurdles for the University of Kentucky before she turned professional. 

Overall, there were over 1,200 current or former NCAA athletes who competed at the Paris Olympics. With the United States’s continued dominance at the top of the Medal Table, the NCAA seems to be an important part of building the United States’s coalition of talented athletes.