The contest for most gold medals at the Paris Olympics ended in a 40-40 tie between China and the United States.
Who was supposed to lead the medal count at the Paris Games?
According to Nielsen’s Gracenote virtual medal-table forecast, which collected results data from big competitions since the Tokyo Games, the top five for overall medals in Paris was going to be as follows: The U.S. (112 overall medals); China (86); Britain (63); France (60) and Australia (54).
The U.S. did top the medals table. However, the U.S. and China both upped their gold and overall medal counts.
Japan proved the virtual predictors wrong by sneaking into third place with 20 golds among its 45 medals.
France and Australia were in the top five as predicted, but the other way around.
Skateboard star Keegan Palmer helped Australia go fourth with 18 golds among 53 medals, while fifth-place France tallied 16 golds among its 64 medals.
Britain got more medals than in Tokyo — 65 to 64 — but had less golds and was seventh overall behind the Netherlands.
Great haul of China, as team dominates diving
When Cao Yuan defended his title in the men’s 10-meter platform on Saturday, it gave his nation an unprecedented sweep of the diving gold medals.
China won all eight golds handed out at the Olympic Aquatics Centre.
China won five golds in each of shooting, table tennis and weightlifting, with China’s victory in the team event in table tennis giving the country its 300th gold in Olympic history.
Golds galore for USA on track
Rugby star Antoine Dupont got the ball bouncing by leading France to gold in the rugby sevens, then Marchand took over.
Heavyweight judo star Teddy Riner added another gold as the French judo team walked away with a whopping 10 medals.
MDT/AP
