United States one gold medal away from 1,000th at Summer Olympics

The United States’ 1,000th gold medal could be won by either the men’s or women’s swimming relay team Saturday night. (Getty)

 

With a monster day on Friday, a women’s rowing gold Saturday morning, and a men’s long jump gold Saturday night at the Rio Olympics, the United States is now one gold medal away from its 1,000th at the Summer Games.

Olympic historians are actually split on the exact medal count for the Americans. Bill Mallon had the count at 996 coming into Saturday. Infostrada had it at 997. There hasn’t been a consensus conclusion on which is correct. But the U.S. Olympic Committee had the official number at 977 before the 2016 Games began, and the U.S. has won 22 golds so far in Rio including the two on Saturday.

The U.S. will almost surely get to 1,000 on Saturday night. Both the women’s and men’s 4×100-meter medley swim relay teams are favored in their gold medal heats tonight. If no other American wins gold between now and then, the women could get the landmark gold. If the women get upset, the U.S. could win its 1,000th Summer Olympics gold medal in Michael Phelps’ final Olympic race.

The U.S. won its first medal of the day in women’s eights rowing. That brought the all-time count to 998. Then American long-jumper Jeff Henderson brought it to 999.

In track and field, the U.S. has two more gold medal possibilities. English Gardner and Torie Bowie are the top two U.S. participants in the women’s 100-meter at 9:37 p.m. ET. And Barbara Nwaba is one of three Americans competing in the women’s heptathlon throughout the day.

The U.S. had four shots at gold in the swimming pool, two of them before the relay teams hit the water. But Simone Manuel came up just short in the women’s 50-meter freestyle, taking silver, and Connor Jaeger and Jordan Wilimovsky fell to Italian Georgio Paltrinieri in the 1500-meter freestyle. (Jaeger won silver.)

So if the U.S. doesn’t win another track and field gold, it’ll be the U.S. women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team who has the first chance at No. 1,000. If they don’t do it, Phelps and the men’s 4×100 medley relay team will get a crack at it.

When the U.S. does reach the 1,000 mark, whether it’s Saturday or Sunday, the achievement will highlight the remarkable dominance of American athletes at the Summer Games. Here’s a look at the all-time Summer Olympics gold medal top 10 heading into Saturday:

United States — 997
Soviet Union — 395
Great Britain — 243
China — 214
France — 207
Italy — 202
Germany — 180
Hungary — 172
East Germany — 153
Sweden — 144

The U.S. has more than 2,400 Summer Olympic medals overall, nearly 1,100 combined Summer and Winter Olympic gold medals, and more than 2,700 total Olympic medals.