Jennifer Valente's gold in Women's Omnium pushes Team USA within one of Olympics gold medal-leading China

American cyclist Jennifer Valente won gold in the Women’s Omnium on Sunday. With that, she pushed Team USA to within one gold medal of China in the overall count for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

For Valente, it was a dominant effort to win the Omnium and by the end of the race, it wasn’t particularly close. That was Valente’s second gold medal at the Paris Games as she’s done more than her part to help the USA’s medal count.

Her gold medal was the 39th of the Olympics for Team USA. That put the Americans one gold medal behind the Chinese with an opportunity to tie the gold medal count at 40 overall. That comes with the gold medal game in women’s basketball remaining.

The Americans have won seven straight gold medals in women’s basketball. It’s an unprecedented run of dominance that they expect to keep going on Sunday. There, Team USA will take on Team France for the gold. It would, if France is able to win, be their 17th gold medal at these Olympics that they’ve hosted in Paris.

That game is, uniquely, the same matchup that Team USA was able to win in men’s basketball for a gold medal the day before.

While the gold medal count is something that Team USA is still chasing, there’s no doubt that the Americans are going to walk away with the highest overall medal count at these Olympics. Ahead of the women’s basketball final, the United States already has 125 overall medals. That’s by far the most, with China currently in second with 91 overall medals.

Team USA had multiple opportunities to pass China on the final day of competition at the Olympics, but took silver medals in women’s indoor volleyball and wrestling. Because of those performances, a tie for the gold medal count is the best that the Americans can do in the end.

Team USA seems poised to tie that overall medal count with how well the women’s basketball team has been playing. This comes after beating Australia by 21 points in the semifinals and from the start of the tournament in Paris, not a single team has finished the game within 10 points of the Americans. However, nothing is set in stone and it will be a pro-France crowd.

Of course, without the performance of Jennifer Valente, the women’s basketball game wouldn’t have the same impact that it’s going to on the gold medal count. This was her second straight Olympic Games where she won gold in the Omnium.