Team USA ties China in gold medal count to close out Paris Olympics

It was a wild two weeks of men's basketball at the Paris Olympics, featuring more than its fair share of high-flying dunks.

Team USA women's basketball has won its eighth straight gold medal in Paris.

The celebration moved star Brittney Griner to tears.

The three-time gold medal winner Griner was imprisoned in Russia for 10 months before being released in a prisoner exchange in December 2022.

The final game of the 2024 Olympics brought plenty of drama as the Americans walked away with a buzzer-beating victory over France when Gabby Wilson's last-second three-point attempt came after the clock hit zero.

Diana Taurasi has gone 6-for-6.

The 42-year-old basketball legend earned her sixth Olympic gold medal on Sunday with Team USA's nail-biting win over France. She is now the first woman to earn six Olympic golds in a team sport and the most decorated American basketball player in Olympic history.

Taurasi made her Olympic debut at the 2004 Athens Games and has sported the red, white and blue at each Olympics since.

While Taurasi did not check into the Sunday's game, her Paris triumph further cements her legacy as a legendary Team USA player.

In the past three Olympic Games, the U.S. has claimed the title of most gold medals won. Often it was closely followed by China, and in the Beijing 2008 Games, China beat the U.S. for most golds.

From the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the race was on to see who would clinch the most first-place titles. Early in the Games, the U.S. was placing around fourth for most gold medals, while China held strong to the number-one spot.

But Team USA slowly climbed the ranks and about halfway through the Games, it reached the top. For the past few days, it's been unclear which country would ultimately take home the most gold.

Just before the last event of this year's Games, the women's basketball gold medal game between the U.S. and France, the U.S. sat at number two — just one medal behind China. In a particularly close game, Team USA just managed to secure their final gold medal. In the end, the U.S. and China tied for most gold medals.

The U.S. also tops the charts in most silver medals, bronze medals and medals overall.

Eight straight!

The U.S. women’s basketball team extended its Olympic dynasty on Sunday by defeating France 67-66 to win an eighth consecutive gold medal. But of those eight podiums the team has reached the top of, the climb in Paris may have been the most challenging of all.

With the U.S. up by three and seconds remaining, France's Gabby Williams banked in a shot from deep at the buzzer, but her foot was on the 3-point line, allowing the U.S. to escape with a one-point win and yet another gold medal.

It was Kahleah Copper who helped deliver gold, scoring 10 points off the bench in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws with five seconds remaining that proved to be the difference. A'ja Wilson had 21 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks to lead the U.S.

The U.S. women's basketball team has regained a 45-43 lead over France after the third quarter of the women's basketball final, but it had to erase a double-digit deficit to get it. 

The offensive miscues continued early in the third for Team USA as France opened on a 10-0 run to take a 35-25 lead.

The U.S. was held scoreless for the first 3:14 of the quarter, ending the drought on a 3-pointer by Kelsey Plum. After a layup by A'ja Wilson, Plum added another 3 to cap an 8-0 run and make it a one-possession game at 35-33. Napheesa Collier later capped a 6-0 run with a layup that put Team USA back in front with a 41-40 advantage.

Wilson got fouled on a putback attempt with seconds left and hit both free throws to send the U.S. into the fourth with a lead.

Team USA is one quarter away from an eighth straight gold medal, while France is seeking its first in women's basketball.

Trying to win a gold medal doesn't always look pretty.

The U.S. and France will enter the second half of the women's basketball final tied at 25-25 in what has been a struggle for both teams.

Team USA, seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal, shot just 8-for-24 from the field (33.3%) and committed 13 turnovers in the first half. The team was held without a 3-pointer, missing all three attempts. The U.S. kept pace with France thanks to a large advantage at the free-throw line, making 9 of 14 attempts while France did not get to the line in the half.    

France's Marine Fauthoux hit a logo 3-pointer from just inside mid-court with the shot clock winding down to even the score at 23-23 with 2:51 left in the half. France then took a 25-23 lead on a jumper by Janelle Salaun. A tip-in by Napheesa Collier at the buzzer tied the score for the U.S. heading into the break. It's the first time the U.S. women's basketball team is without a halftime lead since the 2012 semifinal when it trailed Australia 47-43.

A'ja Wilson led the U.S. with six points in the half but shot just 2-for-9 from the field. France shot 11-for-40 (27.5%) from the field, including just 3 of 18 from deep, but grabbed 10 offensive rebounds. 

NBC Olympics track and field commentator and 2012 Olympic decathlon silver medalist Trey Hardee has been counting the number of croissants he's eaten at the Paris Olympics.

But can he handle a GIANT croissant?

The women's basketball gold medal is coming down to ... rebounding?

Both teams in the final struggled from the field in the early going, with the U.S. taking a 15-9 lead after the first quarter. The U.S. opened the game 2-for-10 and France just 2-for-17.

Brittney Griner closed the quarter with back-to-back buckets.

The U.S. women's basketball team is seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal. With a win, the U.S. would finish tied with China for the most gold medals at the Paris Olympics with 40.

A number of Team USA men's basketball stars are in the building for the U.S. women's basketball team's gold-medal game against France on Sunday.

LeBron James is in attendance a day after winning his third Olympic gold, while Derrick White and Bam Adebayo are sitting next to Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe.

Alex Cooper will take the mic for a high-stakes basketball matchup in Paris on Sunday.

The famous podcast host is hosting a live, interactive watch party for the women's basketball gold medal final against France during the final event of the 2024 Olympics.

Alex Cooper Watch Party: Women's basketball gold medal final

Team USA's hopes of tying China's gold medal haul of 40 comes down to women's basketball.

Team USA has taken the most gold medals in the last three Olympics — China last topped the gold medal table in 2008 at a home Olympics staged in Beijing.

One day after Team USA men's basketball topped France to claim a five-peat gold bid, the U.S. women's team is going for eight. With a victory, the U.S. will close the Paris Olympics tied with China atop the gold-medal leaderboard with 40.

In the final event of the 2024 Games, the U.S. women's team will be playing France for a chance at 61 straight Olympic wins and an eighth straight gold medal.

France has never won gold on the women's side, but it claimed bronze in Tokyo. Regardless of the result, France will have improved its standing from the last Olympic Games.

The game will tip-off at 9:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. PT, making it the last event of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Watch Women's Basketball Gold Final Live: FRA vs. USA

Serbia has gone back-to-back-to-back in men's water polo.

Nine Serbian players found the scoresheet as the team defeated Croatia 13-11 in Sunday's gold-medal match.

Serbia beat Croatia in the 2016 gold-medal game and won Tokyo gold with a win over Greece. With Sunday's triumph, Serbia is now tied with Yugoslavia, Italy and Great Britain for the second-most Olympic golds in the event, trailing only Hungary (nine).

Denmark dominated the men's handball final by beating Germany 39-26 on Sunday.

Mathias Gidsel erupted for 11 goals, as four Danish players scored five goals or more.

Denmark has now won gold at two of the last three Olympics. The team won its first gold at the 2016 Rio Games and landed silver at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Germany walks away with its third Olympic silver medal in the men's event.

Kennedy Blades fell one victory shy of a gold medal.

The 20-year-old from Chicago was defeated by Japan's Yuka Kagami 3-1 in the women's freestyle 76-kilogram gold-medal match Sunday. Blades was looking to become the third-youngest American to win gold in wrestling behind Amit Elor (20 years, 7 months) and Kyle Snyder (20 years, 9 months).

The silver-medal performance by Blades, who defeated three higher-seeded opponents to reach the final, caps what has been the most successful Games in the history of the U.S. women's wrestling team.

Elor won her historic gold medal earlier this week in the women's freestyle 68kg. Team USA's Sarah Hildebrandt followed with a gold-medal win in the women's freestyle 50kg.

Entering the Paris Olympics, the United States had only won two gold medals in women's wrestling since it debuted at the 2004 Games (Helen Maroulis in 2016 and Tamyra Mensah-Stock in 2020).

Team USA has won the overall medal count in Paris but still up for grabs is a claim for most gold medals.

China has a two-medal count over the United States, 40 to 38, with several events remaining at the 2024 Olympics.

America can tie the gold medal count with wins in from cyclist Jennifer Valente in the women's omnium final and women's basketball.

Team USA plays France at 9:30 a.m. ET — the last event in Paris before the Closing Ceremony.

Watch Live: Team USA vs. France in final event of 2024 Olympics

The defending Olympic women's volleyball champions are on the ropes.

Italy has won the first two sets against Team USA, following a 25-18 first set with a 25-20 second.

Team USA will need a massive comeback to give the U.S. another gold medal on the final day of the Paris Olympics.

On the other side, Italy is one set away from making its first Olympic women's volleyball medal gold.

China's Li Wenwen earned a second straight Olympic title by winning the women's +81kg weightlifting event on Sunday.

Wenwen had a 136kg snatch and 173kg clean and jerk, bringing her overall total to 309kg. She was the only weightlifter to exceed a 300kg total, with South Korea's Park Hye-jeong (299kg) claiming silver and Great Britain's Emily Campbell (288kg) claiming bronze.

The win brings China up to 40 gold medals in the Paris, two more than second-place Team USA with just a handful of events still to go at the Paris Olympics.

Mary Theisen-Lappen of the U.S. placed fifth with a 274kg total (119kg snatch, 155kg clean and jerk).

Team USA's Jennifer Valente is on track to defend her Olympic title in the women's omnium heading into the last of the four events in the competition.

The omnium sees riders compete over four race disciplines to crown the best all-around rider.

Valente won the first event of the day, a 10-kilometer race known as the "scratch race" before placing second in the "tempo race," in which riders were awarded a point each time they led a lap of the 30-lap race.

The Team USA rider has just taken victory in the sprint race, which saw the last rider to cross the line every two laps eliminated. She now has a 10-point lead over Australia's Georgia Baker heading into the final event — the points race.

The points race is the one with the most riding on it. A gruelling 80-lap race, every 10 laps racers will be awarded points for their position across the line — five for coming first, four for second and so on. If a rider laps the field, they will get 20 points, so points races tend to be fast and furious with the standings able to change dramatically.

Ellesse Andrews is taking home three medals to New Zealand after a dominant performance in women's cycling.

Andrews' Paris came to a close Sunday morning with a gold medal in the women's sprint.

She closes the 2024 Olympics with two golds and one silver medal.

Italy won the first set in the women's volleyball gold-medal match against Team USA by a score of 25-18.

Italy, which has never medaled in the event, opened on a 6-1 run and held control throughout the opening set.

Australia outlasted Belgium in the women's basketball bronze-medal game, winning 85-81 on Sunday.

It's the sixth Olympic women's basketball medal for Australia and the country's first since it earned bronze at the 2012 London Games.

Belgium, meanwhile, falls one win shy of its first women's basketball medal in just its second-ever Olympic appearance.

Ezi Magbegor was the star of the game, leading Australia with 30 points on 12-for-17 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds.

The duo of Julie Vanloo and Emma Meesseman combined for 49 of Belgium's 81 points.

Hungary's Michelle Gulyas has won gold in the final of the women's modern pentathlon.

Gulyas, 23, scored a total of 1461 points, 300 in the riding show jumping event, 245 in fencing, 286 in swimming and 630 in laser gun, a world record.

In second came France's Elodie Clouvel, who scored a total of 1452 (293, 260, 287 and 608 respectively). Third was Seungmin Seong of South Korea, who scored 1441 (300, 225, 288 and 628 respectively).

Gulyas previously finished 12th at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and was a bronze medalist at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

There will not be an Olympic medal three-peat for Kyle Snyder.

The 28-year-old from Maryland was defeated by Amirali Azarpira of Iran in the men's freestyle 97-kilogram bronze-medal match. Snyder suffered a head wound early in the match that had to be wrapped to stop the bleeding.

Snyder won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and took silver three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics. He entered the Paris Games having medaled in nine straight World and Olympic events. 

In the 97-kg gold-medal match on Sunday, Akhmed Tazhudinov of Bahrain defeated Givi Matcharashvili of Georgia by pin in a 2-0 victory to give his country its first medal in wrestling.

Devin Booker had some fun celebrating his second Olympic gold medal last night in Paris.

Sporting his two Olympic golds and a Team USA jacket, Booker signed an autograph for a fan wearing his Phoenix Suns jersey before casually taking off on a bike.

A crucial gold will be up for grabs in the women's volleyball final on Sunday.

Team USA, the reigning champions, will take on Italy in the gold medal match. The U.S. swept Brazil in the final in Tokyo, then beat the nation again in the Paris semifinals.

To repeat, the U.S. will need to triumph over an Italian side that has never medaled in the event, but will do so regardless of Sunday's result.

The U.S.-Italy showdown is set to begin at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT.

Watch Team USA vs. Italy in the women's volleyball final live

Team Britain has announced that Kate French, who won gold in the women's modern pentathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has withdrawn from today's final due to illness.

Britain is still being represented in the competition with Kerenza Bryson, who currently is in seventh with 783 points.

Sebastian Rivera is bringing a bronze medal back to Toms River, New Jersey.

The 25-year-old wrestler rallied to defeat Mongolia's Tumur-Ochir Tulga 10-9 in the men's freestyle 65-kilogram bronze medal match.

Rivera, a former Rutgers standout, was the flagbearer for Puerto Rico at the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics. 

The men's water polo bronze medal match between the U.S. and Hungary will be determined by a penalty shootout.

The two sides ended regulation tied at 8-8 with the U.S. scoring consecutive goals to tie the score.

Read more about how penalty shootouts work in Olympic water polo

Team USA's Mary Theisen-Lappen could become a hero with a gold upset in the women's weightlifting 81kg competition on Sunday.

With China currently leading the gold medal count, Theisen-Lappen could help close the gap.

China's Li Wenwen, the reigning gold medalist in the 87kg, is competing.

Theisen-Lappen won gold in the 81kg at the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games.

Watch the women's weightlifting 81kg final live

Three German swimmers became ill after competing in the open water races at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the German Olympic Sports Confederation said.

The GOSC said it was not immediately clear if the long-polluted Seine River was the root cause of the sickness and did not identify the affected swimmers.

Leonie Beck, one of the sickened swimmers, took to social media on Saturday to say "she vomited 9 times" on Friday in addition to developing diarrhea symptoms.

Here's what we know.

The U.S. is up 6-5 heading into the fourth quarter of the men's water polo bronze medal match.

Hungary took its first lead of the match midway through the third quarter, but the U.S. rebounded with back-to-back goals to retake the lead.

Team USA is chasing its first men's water polo medal since 2008, while Hungary is looking to earn its 17th career medal in the event.

Team USA has a one-goal lead over Hungary at halftime in the men's water polo bronze medal match.

Each side scored just one goal in the second period, and all four of Team USA's first-half goals came on the power play.

The U.S. is chasing its first Olympic medal in 16 years, and perhaps nobody wants to see the team get it done more than this young fan:

The U.S. is up 3-2 over Hungary after one period in the men's water polo bronze medal match.

Johnny Hooper opened the scoring for the U.S. and Chase Dodd added a goal later in the quarter. Ben Hallock got on the board with a last-second goal to give Team USA a one-goal lead.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won gold in the women's marathon after crossing the finish line at 2:22:55, marking a new Olympic record.

Hassan, 31, and a three-time Olympian, crossed the line after running past Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa, the current Berlin Marathon world record holder, in the last stretch of the race.

This is Hassan's third Olympic medal at the Paris Games, as she earned bronze in the women's 5000m and 10,000m events. Hassan has previously won Olympic gold in the women's 5000m and 10,000m races and bronze at the 1500m event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She became the first Dutch runner to earn gold in athletics since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Team USA's Dakotah Lindwurm finished 12th, clocking in at 2:26:44.

Spain has earned bronze in men's handball for the second straight Olympics by defeating Slovenia 23-22 on Sunday.

Spain now has five bronze medals in its Olympic history, while Slovenia fell just short of its first ever Olympic handball medal.

Germany and Denmark will square off in the men's handball gold medal contest at 7:30 a.m. ET/4:30 a.m. PT.

The U.S. men's water polo team is trying to make the podium for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It will have to top Hungary in the bronze medal game Sunday to do so.

The last medal the U.S. earned was silver in Beijing, which came in a loss to gold medalists Hungary. The U.S. will go for revenge at 4:35 a.m. ET/1:35 a.m. PT.

Watch Team USA vs. Hungary go for bronze in men's water polo live

Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi has taken the lead at the 30km (18.6 miles) mark in the women's marathon.

Lokedi, clocking in at 1:43:59, is trailed by Hellen Obiri and Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, and Tigst Assefa and Beriso Amane Shankule of Ethiopia.

Team USA's Dakotah Lindwurm has fallen back to the 13th spot.

Team USA's Dakotah Lindwurm is among the three runners in the lead group at the women's marathon.

Lindwurm is next to Sardana Trofimova of Kyrgyzstan and Israel's Chemtai Lonah Salpeter, who holds the lead at around 1:26:32 at the 25km mark, with 17km to go.

Australia's Jessica Stenson is leading in the women's marathon as the runners reach the halfway point at the Palace of Versailles.

Stenson reached the 21km mark at 1:13:22. Behind her are France's Melody Julien and Dakotah Lindwurm of Team USA.

It's familiarity versus inexperience in the men's handball bronze match Sunday.

Spain will take on Slovenia, while Germany and Denmark will battle for gold later in the day.

Spain has reached far in men's handball tournaments before. In fact, it has four bronze wins dating back to 1996.

Slovenia, on the other hand, does not yet have a medal in the sport and will look to grab its first.

Watch Spain vs. Slovenia in the men's handball bronze game live

Dakotah Lindwurm, Fiona O'Keeffe and Emily Sisson are representing the U.S. in the women's marathon to start the final day in Paris.

The U.S. currently sits one gold behind China for most in Paris, so this event could turn out crucial if one of the three triumphs.

China has three competitors itself: Li Bai, Yuyu Xai and Deshun Zhang.

Watch the women's marathon live