Now the USA has reached a medal milestone in Rio.
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Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles became “America’s Sweetheart” by winning a gold medal in the individual all-around in gymnastics and took home four other medals.
With a win in the women’s 4×100-meter medley on Saturday, the United States claimed its 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history.
Simone Manuel took a silver medal in the 50m freestyle at 9:03 p.m. ET and anchored the 4x100m medley relay to a gold medal at about 9:50 p.m. ET on Saturday night.
That total far outdistances the next-highest country, Russia, which has 577 golds if counting all the various incarnations under which it has competed.
It the USA women had not captured the landmark medal, Michael Phelps and the men’s 4×100 medley relay squad would have done so, the quartet winning gold in the very next event in the pool. Legends Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis (nine each) are next on the list, followed by swimmers Jenny Thompson and Matt Biondi and 1900-08 long, high and triple jumper Ray Ewry with eight golds each.
While some Olympic historians have disputed the number of golds the USA has won, the United States Olympic Committee said that the women’s victory would count as the country’s 1,000th.
Olympic historian Bill Mallon had the United States with 976 golds coming into Rio. China is next on the Rio medal table at 13 golds.
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Australia took the silver medal in a time of 3:55.00 and Denmark rounded out the podium with bronze medals, 0.01 seconds behind Australia.
