The U.S. had more medals than anyone else Wednesday at the Olympics.
On that day, Team USA had 32 medals — 12 golds, 11 silvers and nine bronzes. China was in second place with 27 medals — 12 golds, six silvers and nine bronzes.
ROC is in third place and — well, you may be wondering what “ROC” is. It’s the Russian Olympics Committee, and it’s how Russian athletes are competing despite a two-year ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency. Technically, no athletes can represent Russia at the Olympics, Paralympics or World Championships.
The Russian athletes aren’t allowed to wear a flag or other symbol representing Russia. And the Russian anthem isn’t played when ROC athletes win a medal.
That said, as of Wednesday, the ROC athletes had won 24 medals — seven golds, 11 silvers and six bronzes.
And as of Wednesday, Japan was in fourth place for the medal count with 22 medals. But Japan had the highest number of gold medals — 13. The rest of its medals were four silvers and five bronzes.
Also on Wednesday, Australia and Great Britain were tied for fifth place with 16 medals each. But on that day, Australia was ahead of Britain in gold medals. Wednesday’s medal counts showed Australia with six golds, one silver and nine bronzes and Britain with five golds, six silvers and five bronzes.
One of Wednesday’s gold medals was won by Team USA’s Katie Ledecky in the Olympics’ first women’s 1,500-meter freestyle. Teammate Erica Sullivan was right behind to pick up the silver. At the end of the race, they hugged in the pool, and their names will be in the history books.
Today (this morning Pacific time), Jade Carey and Suni Lee were to represent Team USA in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics. Ms. Carey will replace Simone Biles, who pulled out of the competition to focus on her mental health. Team USA and fans voiced support for Ms. Biles.
The Olympics are being broadcast on NBC (KSBY-TV) and its sister networks, as well as its free streaming site, peacock.com.
email: dmason@newspress.com
