The United States won the first gold medal of the 2016 Rio Olympics when Ginny Thrasher edged out two Chinese shooters to win the women’s 10-meter air rifle event. The U.S. also managed to grab a silver medal in archery, when the men’s team came second to South Korea.
Rio Olympics medal count 2016: United States wins 1st gold, but China leads medal count
The United States won the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, but China has the most hardware after doing well in shooting events.
Joining Team USA among nations with gold medals are Belgium, South Korea, Argentina, Hungary, Russia and, surprisingly, Vietnam. Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet was able to chase down Rafal Majka after a harrowing descent to win the men’s cycling road race. Vietnam won its first gold medal *ever* when Hoàng Xuan Vinh edged out Brazil’s Felipe Almeida Wu to win men’s 10-meter air pistol.
Argentina and Russia both earned gold medals in judo competition, with the former taking the women’s 48 kg and the latter taking the men’s 60 kg competition. South Korea earned the gold over the United States in the archery event while Hungary’s Emese Szasz took down Rossella Flamingo in fencing to earn a gold medal.
China is currently the competition in terms of volume. It took silver and bronze in the women’s 10-meter air rifle, bronze in the men’s 10-meter air pistol and bronze in the women’s individual épée for a total of four medals so far.
Here is how the medal standings look after a total of 23 have been handed out:
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| China | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| South Korea | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Japan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Belgium | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Russia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vietnam | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brazil | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Italy | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Poland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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