France's Teddy Riner and French judo team celebrate with supporters at the Club France in the Nations park in Paris on Aug. 3.VALENTINE CHAPUIS/Getty Images
President Emmanuel Macron had set the bar high by calling for 50-60 French medals at the Paris Olympics and Les Bleus duly delivered, reeling in the country’s biggest medal haul since 1900, as the Games came to an end on Sunday.
The women’s basketball team delivered the delegation’s 64th medal when they took silver after their final defeat against the U.S., the highest number since the 1900 Games – also held in Paris – when fewer nations competed and some events were only contested by French athletes.
With 16 golds, France also beat its tally from Atlanta 1996 (15), and its 64 medals overall easily eclipsed their Beijing 2008 tally of 43.
The United States finished with 126 medals, including 40 gold.
“This result is an exceptional result,” Claude Onesta, high-performance manager at the French National Sports Agency, told a news conference on Sunday as France finished fifth in the medals table.
“I wanted share our big satisfaction, with results that reflect the structural strength of our nation,” sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera added.
Two athletes in particular shone and gave the host country a huge boost in confidence, as swimmer Leon Marchand and judoka Teddy Riner claimed four and two golds respectively, and sent the crowds wild across the capital.
Team sports also contributed with seven medals – one more than in Tokyo – although the handball defending champions, women and men, lost their titles.
The U.S. easily won the total medal count. Aside from the 40 gold, the Americans won 42 silver and 44 bronze.
China came in second in the total medal race with 91. China won 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze. Japan was a distant third with 20 gold medals, 45 overall. Britain won 65 medals, but only 14 were gold for an overall ranking of seventh.
The medal rankings are done by gold, and the last time the United States didn’t top the standings was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when the Americans finished second to China, 48-36.
The U.S. has won the most overall medals in eight consecutive Summer Games. The last time the Americans failed to top the medal leaderboard was the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The “Unified Team” featuring athletes from ex-Soviet republics won both the most golds (45) and total medals (112), while the Americans were second in both categories with 37 golds and 108 medals.
The United States won a total of five medals on Sunday, including a silver in women’s freestyle 76 kg (wrestling), a team silver in women’s volleyball and a bronze in men’s water polo.
Three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. beat China with 39 gold medals to 38. The U.S. won 113 medals in Tokyo. The Americans were far more dominant at the Rio Olympics in 2016, when they won 46 gold medals to 27 for Britain 26 for China.
Reuters, The Associated Press