The contest for most gold medals at the Paris Olympics ended in a between China and the United States.
But the U.S. topped the medals table with a whopping 126 overall, compared to 91 for China. At the Tokyo Games, the U.S. also edged China in the medal count, finishing with 113 overall and 39 golds, compared to 89 medals with 38 gold for China.
Who was supposed to lead the medal count at the Paris Games?
According to Nielsen鈥檚 Gracenote forecast, which collected results data from big competitions since the Tokyo Games, the top five for overall medals in Paris was going to be as follows: The U.S. (112 overall medals); China (86); Britain (63); France (60) and Australia (54).
The U.S. did top . However, the U.S. and China both upped their gold and overall medal counts.
Japan proved the virtual predictors wrong by sneaking into third place with 20 golds among its 45 medals.
France and Australia were in the top five as predicted, but the other way around.
Skateboard star helped Australia go fourth with 18 golds among 53 medals, while fifth-place France tallied 16 golds among its 64 medals.
Britain got more medals than in Tokyo 鈥� 65 to 64 鈥� but had less golds and was seventh overall behind the Netherlands.
Here鈥檚 a closer look at the some of the nations:
Great haul of China, as team dominates diving
When Cao Yuan defended his title in the 尘别苍鈥檚 10-meter platform on Saturday, it gave his nation .
China won all eight golds handed out at the Olympic Aquatics Centre.
China won five golds in each of shooting, and weightlifting, with China鈥檚 victory in the team event in table tennis giving the country its .
Golds galore for USA on track, but no medal in wo尘别苍鈥檚 water polo
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400-meter hurdles as the U.S. won 14 golds in track and field.
Noah Lyles won a historically close 尘别苍鈥檚 100-meter race, and Gabrielle Thomas took the wo尘别苍鈥檚 200. Quincy Hall won the 尘别苍鈥檚 400 at a Stade de France, which grew accustomed to hearing the American national anthem.
added to her growing fame with four more medals, and the swimmers, led by another Olympic great in , grabbed eight golds.
The and wo尘别苍鈥檚 basketball teams won their tournaments, both beating France in the finals. The U.S. women survived the biggest challenge of their unprecedented run to eight straight Olympic gold medals with a to close out competition at the Paris Games.
But the U.S. wo尘别苍鈥檚 water polo team after high expectations.
France exceed expectations
Led by the brilliant performances of L茅on Marchand, who finished with five medals overall, Les Bleus won one more gold than Atlanta in 1996 and nearly doubled their 33 medals overall from the Tokyo Games three years ago.
got the ball bouncing by leading France to gold in the rugby sevens, then Marchand took over.
Heavyweight judo star added another gold as the French judo team walked away with a whopping 10 medals.
The 尘别苍鈥檚 handball team disappointed, though, failing to get a medal when defending their title, although the women did get silver.
The track and field team only got one medal late on, however, with Cyrena Samba-Mayela getting silver in the wo尘别苍鈥檚 110 hurdles on Saturday.
Who else made an impression?
Four of Germany鈥檚 12 gold medals came in equestrian, with veteran extending her Olympic equestrian record to 14 medals.
got three swimming gold medals and a silver for Canada, which ended the Games with nine golds among its 27 medals.
One of Sweden鈥檚 four golds came from pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, who stunned the 80,000 fans at Stade de France by .
won an emotional gold medal for Serbia, which again won the and finished with three golds among its five medals.
won one of Algeria鈥檚 two golds, emerging from a tumultuous run at the Games where she endured over her sex.
Manu Bhaker earned two of India鈥檚 six medals. The 22-year-old became the first Indian woman to win a medal in shooting, taking a bronze in 10-meter air pistol and adding another in the mixed team event.
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