As of the afternoon of August 4, the US has risen to second place in the medal standings of the 2024 Paris Olympics, with 14 gold medals. The US is currently 2 gold medals behind the Chinese sports delegation. The race between the world's two leading sports powers has reached its most intense point. When the strong event of athletics began to compete, as well as when the other strong event of swimming entered the decisive stage, the US sports delegation accelerated very quickly.

In athletics, the US team won another gold medal (Photo: Getty).

Last night (August 3) and early this morning (August 4), the US team won another gold medal in the men's shot put in track and field (Ryan Crouser, 22.90m) and two gold medals in swimming, including the women's 800m freestyle (Katie Ledecky, 8 minutes 11.04 seconds) and the mixed 4x100m relay. However, the US team also regrettably lost gold medals in the mixed 4x400m relay, the women's 100m in track and field and the women's 4x200m freestyle in swimming. On the contrary, China also almost beat the US athletes in the mixed 4x100m relay. That shows that the two strongest sports teams in the world are competing for each other at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Up to this point, the Chinese team can be proud that they have the same number of gold medals in athletics as the US team (each side currently has one gold medal). China's gold medal in athletics appeared in the women's 20km walk (belonging to Yang Jiayu, 1 hour 25 minutes 54 seconds).

Chinese athletes have made remarkable progress in swimming (Photo: Reuters).

The Chinese sports delegation can be proud that they have won gold medals in the two most important and highly regarded sports at the Olympics, including athletics and swimming, completely erasing the view that Chinese sports cannot attack these sports, in many previous Olympics. Chinese sports directly attack the strengths of the US and vice versa. Never before has Chinese swimming won as many medals of all kinds as at the Paris Olympics. Until the last day of swimming competition, taking place tonight (August 4) and early tomorrow morning (August 5, swimming actually has an additional marathon distance taking place on August 8 and 9, but marathon distances are not considered attractive events in swimming), China has won one gold medal, 3 silver medals (HCB) and 5 bronze medals (HCĐ).

Katie Ledecky helps America accelerate in swimming (Photo: Getty).

This is a detail that shows that China is developing swimming comprehensively, and their medals do not come from a temporary upswing. In athletics alone, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, China won 6 medals of all kinds, including 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. China's gold medals in Tokyo 3 years ago (the 2020 Olympics will take place in 2021) were in the women's shot put and women's javelin events. In theory, China is still capable of winning these events this year, continuing to attack the strengths of the US delegation. On the contrary, the US is currently too strong in gymnastics, a sport considered a traditional strength of China for many decades. The US delegation temporarily leads in this sport with 3 gold, 4 bronze, while China has not won any gold (they only have 3 silver and 2 bronze).

China is still trying to maintain its number one position in sports where it has long been strong, such as table tennis (Photo: Reuters).

This shows that both sides are attacking each other's strong sports, aiming to prevent the other from accelerating in these sports. From now until the end of the Games, the world's two leading sports powers will continue to compete for each gold medal. The US team will try to break through in athletics, swimming, boxing, basketball, women's soccer, golf... As for the Chinese team, table tennis, artistic gymnastics, diving, shooting, and artistic swimming will be the sports in which they will try to win gold medals. At the same time, both sides will continue to attack the areas where their opponents are strongest. Thanks to the Chinese athletes' improvement in the US's strong sports and the US athletes' complete transformation in the sports that are traditionally China's strengths, the race between the US and Chinese sports teams will be more exciting than ever in the history of the Olympics.