For the first time in Summer Olympics history, there was a tie atop the gold medal leaderboard as the U.S. and China both won 40 events in Paris. Team USA’s 126 total medal count, 40 gold, 44 silver, and 42 bronze, outpaced China’s 91, Great Britain’s 65, France’s 64, and Australia’s 53; Japan had the next highest gold count, at 20, and the US has the highest silver and bronze tallies.

More than half of Team USA’s 40 golds came in athletics (14) and swimming (8). They also won three each in artistic gymnastics and cycling, two each in basketball, fencing and wrestling, and one each in soccer, golf, rowing, shooting, surfing and weightlifting. Black women earned 42% of Team USA’s women competition medals.

Simone Biles confirmed her GOAT status in Paris. After leaving the Tokyo Olympics and becoming a mental health advocate, Bileswon 4 medals, including 3 gold, in Paris. Fighting through a calf injury, she won team gold, gold in the all-around and vault, as well as silver on floor exercise.

Jordan Chiles won gold alongside Team USA’s other “Golden Girls,” then showed out to pick up bronze on floor exercise; the controversy around that bronze medal went on for days. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team is often in the shadow of the women, but Frederick Richard helped give them their moment to shine with a team bronze.

In Track & Field, the women’s 100 meters belonged to Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, with superstar Sha’Carri Richardson winning silver. Melissa Jefferson shocked everyone with her emotional bronze medal win in the women’s 100 meter.

Noah Lyles won one of the most thrilling 100 meter in a long time, leaning in to take gold by five thousandths of a second; when that ridiculously close finish was finally sorted out, Fred Kerley picked up bronze. Kenny Bednarek won silver and Noah Lyles took the bronze medal in the 200-meter final, but Lyles ended up gasping for air and in a wheelchair after finishing the race. It was later learned that Lyles, who battles asthma and won that gold medal in the men’s 100-meter final previously, had been diagnosed with COVID-19 before the race.

In the womens 4×100 relay,with a sizzling anchor leg from Sha’Carri Richardson bringing the baton across the line in 41.78, Melissa Jefferson, the 100m bronze medalist, had gotten the party started with a solid leadoff leg, passing to 100m fifth-place finisher TeeTee Terry, who blazed down the backstretch to give the stick to 200m gold medalist Gabby Thomas with a slight lead. Thomas acquitted herself well around the bend, and after a slight bobble on the handoff to Richardson, the 100m silver medalist did what Sha’Carri does, blowing past all challengers to give the American foursome the first Olympic gold since Rio 2016. The men bobbled the handoff and did not place in their 4×100 final.

No one had a chance of beating out Gabby Thomas in the women’s 200m at the Paris Olympics, and teammate Brittany Brown took the bronze. Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, and Kaylyn Brown.Shamier Little won silver in the 4x400m mixed relay.

Team USA men ran a spectacular 4x400m relay, posting an Olympic Record to defend their title from Tokyo with Christopher Bailey, Bryce Deadmon, Vernon Norwood, and Rai Benjamin, who crossed the line at 2:54.43 to break the previous record of 2:55.39 set by the U.S. at Beijing in 2008. 16-year-old Quincy Wilson did race in the first round, making him the youngest male track and field gold medalist in Olympic history. Quincy Hall had pulled off a dramatic come-from-behind victory to secure the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter dash, but was unable to compete in the relay.

The women had a stellar lineup for the 4×400, with Shamier Little leading off followed by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was in a class of one, breaking open the second leg with a phenomenal unforgettable sprint that broke the race wide open.

That third gold medal made Gabby Thomas the fifth American woman to win that many in a single Olympic Games, joining Wilma Rudolph in 1960, Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988 and Allyson Felix in 2012.

McLaughlin-Levrone also wowed the world as she broke her own world record in a spectacular 400m hurdle gold. Commentators noted that she would have been as fast as the other runners if they didn’t have hurdles to jump.

Jasmine Moore took bronze in women’s triple jump tough, in nasty rainy conditions.

Masai Russell brought home one more individual gold for the Americans on the track in the 100m hurdles, her only event of the Games.

In one of the most thrilling moments of the Games, the U.S. women’s rugby team, with Naya Tapper and Ariana Ramsey, won bronze with a last second score.

Groundbreaking swimmer Simone Manuel returned for what could be her last Olympics to win silver in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay and women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

The “Trident” or, as they like to call themselves, “Triple Espresso” — Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson — successfully led USWNT back to the top of the soccer podium. The trio scored 10 of the team’s 12 goals these Olympics, with Swanson putting in the winning score in the gold medal game against Brazil, giving the United States its first Olympic gold since 2012.

Lauren Scruggs made history by becoming the first Black woman to win individual medal in fencing,a silver, then she helped lead her team to gold in foil. A star athlete on Harvard’s squad, this six-time world champ, and two-time NCAA champ excelled in Paris.

Nigerian-American hammer thrower Annette Echikunwoke was the first woman to medal in the event for Team USA, throwing for 75.48 meters, placing 2nd and winning a silver medal; and yes, her cousin is actress Megalyn Echikunwoke.

The U.S. women’s basketball team won its eighth consecutive gold medal by the narrowest of margins, erasing a 10-point second-half deficit to win 67-66. Of their 61 straight victories, this was just the third by single digits. Led by A’ja Wilson, who scored 21 points, the U.S. survived a last-second shot by Gabby Williams that was just inside the 3-point line to hold off France. The women’s 3×3 basketball team, led by Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, and Cierra Burdick had a rough start, but rallied back to take home bronze.

The women’s victory came fewer than 24 hours after the U.S. men’s team also beat France in the title game. This was the first time in Olympic history that both gold medal games featured the same two teams.

LA 2028 will mark the third time that Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics. Can you name the other two years it hosted?