(NEXSTAR) — As the Paris Games entered its second week of competition, the U.S. Olympic team jumped to second on the Olympic gold charts.
As of this writing, the U.S. has 19 gold medals to top-of-the-chart China’s 21, though the U.S. has the highest overall medal count at 75.
The new hardware came from a combination of strong U.S. sports including in the pool and on the track. Today on What’s Hot in Paris, JB Biunno of Nexstar’s Tampa, FL station, WFLA, discussed the surge with Olympic champion Brooke Bennett.
The show streams live each weekday at 11 a.m. ET. Watch today’s episode in the video player above.
The American men are finally matching the women at the Paris Olympics, where the females went into the halfway mark with a 9-0 lead in individual gold medals for the United States. The men found a groove on Day 9 of the Games.
Bobby Finke took the top spot in the 1,500-meter freestyle on the final night of swimming. Scottie Scheffler won the men’s golf tournament. Noah Lyles became the “Fastest Man in the World” by winning the men’s 100 meters.
American women still made their mark: Kristen Faulkner won the women’s road race, the 4×100 medley relay team won gold in the pool, and Sunisa Lee won her third medal of these Games with a bronze on bars.
And it wasn’t just medals being claimed by the U.S. Olympians, but records as well.
The United States closed out Olympic swimming with a wide range of emotions. The Americans set two world records on the final night, winning the gold-medal count over rival Australia and easing the sting of the first loss ever in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay.
Bobby Finke set a new standard in the 1,500 freestyle and the American women closed a thrilling nine days at La Defense Arena with another record in their 4×100 medley relay. China stunningly won the gold in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, ending the American run of dominance that stretched back to the introduction of the event at the 1960 Rome Games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
