The Sports Report Olympics edition: U.S. and China tie for gold medals

Hello, I’m John Cherwa and it’s time to say goodbye. After two plus weeks, I hope we’ve informed you, entertained you and maybe even brought a chuckle. But in the end we were just a supplement to the coverage supplied by our outstanding reporters and photographer in Paris. So, with that, we leave you with a classic ballad, listen here.

Well, we predicted the gold medal race would end in a tie, just not the way it happened. Final score: United States 40 golds, 126 overall; China 40, 91. The world recognizes golds as the standard, the U.S. looks at total medals, because it’s easier for it to win. Since we just decided, with no authority, power of even gravitas, if the golds were tied the tiebreaker would be total medals. We officially declare the U.S. the winner.

The real hero for the U.S. was Jennifer Valente, who won the women’s omnium in track cycling. Even though she was defending Olympic champion, she was fourth in the world rankings. But it was no contest as she gave the U.S. an unexpected gold and allowed the U.S. to tie China.

The real shocker of the day had the expected outcome of the U.S women’s basketball team winning its eighth straight gold medal in a nail-biting 67-66 win over France. If France’s Gabby Williams were not inside the three-point line with her last shot, the game would have gone to overtime. Our Thuc Nhi Nguyen was there and this is her report.

The other legit shots for U.S. Olympic gold on Sunday were the defending champion women’s volleyball team, who lost to Italy in straight sets and wrestler Kennedy Blades, who lost to Yuka Kagami in the 76 kg (176 pounds) gold-medal match, 3-1.

The U.S. also picked up a bronze in men’s water polo.

Five things that defined the Games

As a general rule, every Games has five things which define it. We’ve identified some earlier, now the final list, in no particular order.

Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the Paris Olympics.

(Francisco Seco / Associated Press)

—Simone Biles. She dominated television coverage of the first week of the Games. As the star of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, she led them to a team gold, all-around win and gold in the vault. She got the silver in the floor, which was a disappointment. She handled all interviews with grace and poise and a big smile.

—Performance of host country France. You can normally expect a home team bounce from the previous Games but nothing like what France pulled off. (We’re doing total numbers here.) Let’s go back to London in 2012 where Britain (we don’t use Great here except when referring to their accents) increased 27%. Brazil, not a traditionally strong Olympic country, increased its medal count in 2016 by 12%. Japan jumped up 41% in the 2020/2021 Games. As for France, 93% going from 33 to 64. Leon Marchand, a swimmer, led the country with four golds and a bronze.

—The gender controversy. This is perhaps the saddest part of the Games where Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu Ting of Taiwan were the subject of scrutiny because of an abnormally high level of testosterone. Both were born women and identified as such. But, some let their ideology cloud the facts, claiming the boxers were transgender, which they are not. The IOC did the right thing but their Olympics wasn’t as much fun as it should have been.

—A wrong call for the ages. Can you remember a bigger blown call on a bigger event than Leigh Diffey miscalling the winner of the men’s 100? You might have to go back to 1947 when Clem McCarthy miscalled the winner of the Preakness. But unlike Diffey, McCarthy, once he discovered the mistake, corrected himself and apologized to the listeners. What is it they say, the coverup is worse than the crime?

—The city of Paris. No doubt, Paris played every card it had in its deck. From an overly creative opening ceremony with an overly long finish, to a closing that full of energy, Paris had it all. If it missed one of its landmarks as a venue site, I can’t tell you which one. Well, maybe table tennis in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. But there would have been no room for spectators. Job well done. You know L.A. has its creative wheels in overdrive right now.

Olympic Electoral college

At the completion of swimming. We looked at the gold medal standings based on the same principle as the electoral college. Winner take all in each sport based on the number of gold medals awarded. If there was a tie, the winner was the one with total medals in the sport. If it was still tied, both countries were awarded maximum points, which only happened in a handful of two medal team sports.

Clearly the key was winning the biggest sport of track and field (48) and swimming (35). There were a bunch of medium-tier sports, such as judo (18), wrestling (18), shooting (15) gymnastics (14) and rowing (14).

The U.S. was the winner with 103 gold medal points, winning track, swimming and gymnastics. Japan, on the strength of judo, wrestling and fencing was second with 54 points. The Netherlands finished third on the back of rowing and track cycling and China, who tied the U.S. with 40 total gold medals was fourth, one off the Netherlands with 39. It got the bulk of its points from weightlifting (10), diving (8), badminton, tennis and table tennis (all 5 points).

So, what does this tell us about the Olympics? Not much. But it does say something about the electoral college.

Here are the top countries:

United States 103

Japan 54

Netherlands 50

China 39

South Korea 13

Uzbekistan 13

France 10

Britain 10

Harvard vs. USC vs UCLA

Earlier we poked fun at USC and UCLA getting their butt kicked by Harvard when it came to medals. Well, the final total is in (well, we think the final as it seems Harvard and USC update their website on Sunday and UCLA doesn’t. But spot check says three unaccounted for bronze but that’s it.)

Anyway, final total:

Harvard 8 golds, USC 7, UCLA 5.

We would say Harvard is the USC/UCLA of the East or USC/UCLA are the Harvard of the West, but one would be wrong and the other insulting (and we’re not going to tell you which.)

Final random thoughts

Just some things from the final day.

Paino player during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

—Would the U.S. women have won more easily with Caitlin Clark? Probably not.

—My favorite version of “La Marseillaise” still remains this one from Casablanca.

—Jimmy Fallon showed what a pro he was after he tried a joke with Katie Ledecky, which she didn’t hear, but then didn’t repeat it and moved on.

—Stadium karaoke was a flop until “We are the champions.”

—The Golden Voyager segment was over my head. Kind of like the third song at a concert, you can go to the bathroom during the start and probably not miss anything.

—The upside down piano guy wearing what looked like black garbage bags was pretty incredible.

—Just guessing there is more than one Olympic flag?

Must-read links

Let’s catch up on some stories you might have missed but shouldn’t have:

• 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games: Complete coverage
• Plaschke: Bring it on! Los Angeles begins countdown to 2028 Olympics
• Long Beach — no, not Venice — stars in Olympics closing ceremony with Snoop, Dr. Dre, Billie Eilish
• Brittney Griner grateful to bring home Olympic gold for country that fought for her
• LA28 touts ‘authentically Los Angeles’ Olympics as it takes handoff from Paris
• U.S. women’s basketball edges upset-minded France for 8th straight Olympic gold
• Final finisher of women’s marathon shows what it means to be an Olympian
• Here’s how to purchase tickets for 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games
• Women experienced the best of the Olympics — and the worst — in Paris
• How the 2028 Olympics should showcase L.A.: 9 wild ideas from our wish list
• U.S. fights to keep Jordan Chiles’ medal, submitting video evidence to support appeal
  

  Until next time...

  That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at john.cherwa@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.