United States extends lead in overall medal count, Japan leads in Gold at 2024 Paris Olympic Games

The United States extended its lead in the overall medal count at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Monday. But, Japan maintained its lead, now all by itself, with the Gold Medal lead.

But it was a great day Monday morning for the USA as you’ll see in the medal count. So far so good at the Olympics for the Americans with plenty of events to go.

The table of the top 10 countries at the Olympics can be seen below (ordered by gold medal count).

Olympic Medal Count after Monday

1. Japan: 6 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze (12)
2. France: 5 gold, 8 silver, 3 bronze (16)
3. People’s Republic of China: 5 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze (12)
4. Australia: 5 gold, 4 silver (9)
5. Republic of Korea: 5 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze (9)
6. United States of America: 3 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze (20)
7. Great Britain: 2 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze (10)
8. Italy: 2 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze (7)
9. Canada: 2 sold, 1 silver, 2 bronze (5)
10. Germany: 2 gold (2)

One of the highlights for USA Monday was Penn State’s Stephen Nedoroscik clinching the country’s first men’s gymnastics team medal since 2008.

Nedoroscik is considered a pommel horse specialist and it’s the only event he competed in during the all around. It was also the last routine on the last rotation of the day for the Americans, meaning he had to sit in anticipation of the event for hours.

In the end, Nedoroscik scored a massive 14.866 in the final routine of the day for Team USA. At that point, the celebration was on with teammates hugging one another and waiting for it to go official that they’d be standing on the podium.

But with athletic competitions come off the field happenings as well. Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira was banished after sneaking out of the village.

According to Tom Balogun of the Daily Mail, Vieira, 22, snuck out to meet up with boyfriend and fellow swimmer Gabriel Santos without authorization. When questioned, Vieira was reportedly disrespectful and challenging.

Santos was also disciplined but allegedly apologized for leaving and breaking the rules.

Not only that, but other countries noticed the absence of basketball superstar Caitlin Clark from the Olympics.

Ahead of the matchup between the United States and Japan in Paris, a Japanese fan brought in and raised a sign that said ‘You need Caitlin Clark to beat us’. It was enough to get the attention of the players as A’ja Wilson was pointing it out to Britney Griner and Alyssa Thomas.

To be clear, the sign couldn’t have ended up less true. The United States dominated Japan with a 26-point win to open the group phase in a 102-76 victory.