It took until the final few medal events of the Tokyo Olympics, but the United States pushed ahead of China to close the 2020 Games as the big winners. The U.S. took home more gold medals than any other country (39) as well as more total medals than any other country (113).
USA and China were locked at 38 golds apiece with only a few final medals to be decided. It was the U.S. women's volleyball team that earned the Games' decisive gold with a clean three-set sweep over Brazil.
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[RELATED: 2020 Tokyo Olympics medal count]
Team USA rounded out its haul with 41 silver medals and 33 bronze. Tokyo marks the seventh consecutive Olympics that the United States has taken home the most overall medals.
China leaves Tokyo with the second most gold medals (38) and the second most overall medals (88). Host nation Japan won the third most gold medals (27). And athletes representing Russia collected the third most overall medals (70).
The United States entered the Tokyo Games with a commanding lead on the all-time medal standings, adding to its pre-Games totals of 1,023 gold medals, 797.5 silver medals, and 708.5 bronze medals (2,529 total medals). Prior to Tokyo, it was the Soviet Union in second (440 gold medals and 1,122 total) and Great Britain in third (260.5 golds and 849.5 total). China ranked fourth in gold medals (224), but seventh in total medals (546) behind Germany, France and Italy. (If you add the medals from the Soviet Union and Russia, they still place a distant second with 590 golds and 1,556 total.)
China leveraged its dominance in a handful of sports to pad its gold medal total. They won seven gold medals each in diving and weightlifting, and another four gold medals respectively in shooting and table tennis. All but one diving and table tennis gold medal were won by Chinese athletes.
American dominance was on display in swimming and track and field, in which U.S. athletes won 11 and seven gold medals, respectively.
Caeleb Dressel led the way among individual American gold medal winners with five gold medals racked up in the pool. Fellow swimmers Katie Ledecky, Bobby Finke and Zach Apple each won two gold medals, while track and field stars Sydney McLaughlin and Athing Mu also walked away with two gold medals apiece. The U.S. women's gymnastics team delivered a pair of gold medals, with a gold for Suni Lee in the individual all-around final and a gold for Jade Carey in the floor event final.