Medal standings: tie at 40 gold between China and USA.

The cycling bastard Jennifer Valentewith their second title in Paris, this time in the omnium, and the in-extremis victory of the women’s basketball team against France in the final (66-67) saved the honor of the United States, which contributed two important gold to erase China’s advantage in the medal table and achieve a technical tie between both powers at 40 golds in the final table of this Olympic Games. It was the first time two countries tied for gold medals, although the US had more medals, 126 (40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze), compared to 91 for the Chinese delegation (40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze) .

The United States has won the medal table in 18 editions of the Games – 19 if this tie is taken into account – while China has achieved it only once, at home, Beijing’2008, although in Tokyo 2020 a gold medal separated them from the Americans.

Third in the table is Japan, having already occupied the same spot at Tokyo’20 and taking advantage of the inertia of their home Games to finish with 20 golds and 45 medals in total. In fourth place is Australia, a country with half the population of Spain, with 18 golds and 53 medals, while fifth place goes to the host country, France, with 18 golds and 63 medals a little short of the highest expectations. predicted up to 75 podiums in Paris.

Spain, with 18 medals (5 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze), surpassed its harvest from both Tokyo’20 and Rio’16 (17) and finished in 15th place, moving in similar parameters in 2020 (22nd because he won only three golds) and 2016 (14th, with seven golds).

As is almost always the case, the Spanish delegation was surpassed by countries with a smaller number of inhabitants but with a greater sporting tradition, such as the aforementioned Australia, Holland (15 gold and 34 total medals), New Zealand ( 10 gold and 20 medals ) or from Hungary (6 gold and 19 medals); In all these cases the ratio of Olympic medals per capita is higher than in Spain.

Special mention deserves the case of Uzbekistan (35 million inhabitants), which finished in thirteenth place in the table with eight gold and 13 total medals thanks exclusively to the contribution of combat sports, where they are a real power: they achieved all their podiums, except for one in weightlifting, in boxing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling.

In a unique chapter, the Refugee Team won a bronze medal in boxing and two small Caribbean countries like Dominica and Saint Lucia made their Olympic record debut in Paris.