The 2024 Paris Olympics came to a close on Sunday with the United States emerging as the victors. The battle with China for the gold medal was tied for much of the match, with both nations finishing with 40 medals each, but the U.S. won 44 silver and 42 bronze medals, while China easily won the tiebreaker with 27 and 24 medals, respectively.
While the medal count speaks volumes about U.S. sports dominance on the world stage, the flip side is that women were a major reason why the U.S. team ultimately won the Olympic Games. A closer look at how the medals were distributed reveals that the U.S. would have been at a huge disadvantage without the contributions of its female athletes.
U.S. medal totals halved at 2024 Paris Olympics
| united states of america | gold | silver | bronze | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| united states of america | gold | silver | bronze | total |
| male | 13 | 16 | twenty three | 52 |
| woman | 26 | twenty three | 18 | 67 |
| mixture | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| open | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Not only did women contribute to 27 of the U.S. team’s 40 gold medals, but they also played key roles in winning 76 of the United States’ 126 medals, including the “open” medals in equestrian and artistic swimming, which do not separate competitors by gender.
In head-to-head matches against China, it was clear that the women had the edge: China outscored the U.S. 17-13 in the men’s competition, and the women closed the gap by winning seven more gold medals than the Chinese women.
The biggest disparities in medal numbers for the U.S. team were in swimming and gymnastics, where women competed in just as many events as men but finished with much better results.
- Men’s Swimming: 2 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze (total 9 medals)
- Women’s Swimming: 5 gold, 9 silver, 4 bronze (18 total medals)
- Men’s Gymnastics: 2 bronze medals (2 total)
- Women’s Gymnastics: 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal, 3 bronze medals (total 7 medals)
This is a testament to how dominant U.S. women have been in global sports, not just at the Olympic level, but globally: The U.S. will lead all nations in women’s performances at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the 2024 World Athletics Championships, and has won the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 2019.
The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be a big change for the U.S. women’s team. It’s unclear whether Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky will compete, but if they do, they will both be veterans on the team. But with a strong pipeline of young skaters, there’s no sign of an end to the U.S.’s dominance even if the two biggest stars don’t retire.
