Saturday brought the last full day of competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and there was plenty of action to take in. By the end, though, this day turned out like just about all the others, with the United States picking up the most medals and increasing their lead in the overall count. They added 11 medals to their total, bringing it to 116 for the summer, ahead of runner-up China with 70. Five of those US medals were gold, putting them at 43 for the Games, ahead of Great Britain with 27.
2016 Olympics medal count: United States can’t be stopped, adds 11 more medals including 5 gold
The final days of the Games bring the ends of some of the larger team tournaments. The US women’s basketball team highlighted the day, cruising to a 101-72 blowout victory over Spain to secure their sixth straight gold medal in the sport. Women’s basketball has been played at the last 11 Olympics, and the United States has won eight of those tournaments. In the bronze medal game, Serbia came out on top over France, 70-63, to win their first medal in basketball since they began competing as an independent country in 2008. Their men’s team will add another medal on Sunday, as they’re set to play the US in the finals.
In the culmination of another long tournament, Brazil won gold in men’s soccer. That might seem as obvious as the US women winning in basketball, but in fact this is the first time the Brazilians have earned Olympic gold in the sport. Even better, the winning goal came courtesy of their biggest star, Neymar, and the victory over Germany helped avenge Brazil’s semifinal loss to the Germans in the last World Cup. Nigeria ended up with the bronze, after knocking off Honduras. Meanwhile, Serbia showed up in a couple more team sports -- they won gold in men’s water polo over Croatia, and wound up with silver in women’s indoor volleyball after falling to China.
Women’s golf is back in the Olympics for the first time since 1900, and the first gold medal awarded in over a century went to Inbee Park of South Korea. Park, a former World No. 1, is winding down toward the end of her career and there are rumors she may retire after the Olympics, but the seven-time major champion dug deep for one more win. Her score of -16 was plenty good enough to beat the current World No. 1, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who earned the silver with an overall score of -11. The bronze went to Shanshan Feng of China, at -10.
As usual, the United States also cleaned up in track and field. They earned three gold medals, in men’s 1500m (Matthew Centrowitz), men’s 4x400m relay, and women’s 4x400m relay. That last one is particularly noteworthy, because it landed the sixth career Olympic gold for Allyson Felix, extending her own record for most golds by any female track and field athlete. Centrowitz’s win was also impressive, as it was the first time the US has won gold in the men’s 1500m since 1908, over a century ago.
Elsewhere on the track, Mo Farah of Great Britain won the 5000m to wrap up his 5K/10K double-gold for the second straight Games. However, there was some drama behind him -- US runner Paul Chelimo surprised with a second-place finish, then was briefly disqualified for a rules violation before eventually being reinstated with the silver medal. It was the United States’ first medal in the event since 1964. However, the Americans weren’t so fortunate in regards to another rules controversy, as their 4x100m relay team had their appeal denied after being disqualified on Friday and losing their bronze medal.
The Americans’ other gold on Saturday came in the women’s triathlon, thanks to Gwen Jorgensen.
In all, there were 30 medal events on Saturday, spread among 17 sports. The medals were shared among 43 different countries, with 15 of them splitting up the golds. Four countries waited until the penultimate day to earn their first medals of the entire Games: Nigeria (bronze, men’s soccer), Niger (silver, men’s taekwondo 80kg+), Burundi (silver, women’s 800m), and Trinidad and Tobago (bronze, men’s javelin). For Niger and Burundi, these are only their second Olympic medals of all time, with Niger earning a bronze back in 1972 and Burundi a gold in 1996.
See More:
