The United States has participated in the Summer Olympic Games 27 times throughout history, and for the 10th time they will come away with at least 100 total medals. They added seven medals on Thursday, five of them gold, to hit the century mark exactly with a couple days still to go in Rio. The last time they failed to hit triple-digits during the summer was in Sydney in 2000.
The US did most of its damage in track and field, notching four golds: men's 400m hurdles (Kerron Clement), women's 400m hurdles (Dalilah Muhammad), men's shot put (Ryan Crouser), and men's decathlon (Ashton Eaton). For Eaton it was a successful defense of his decathlon gold from London, while Crouser continued a long United States tradition of shot put excellence -- it was the Americans' third gold in that event in the last seven Games, and they've at least medaled every time since 1984. Clement had previously earned the silver in the 400m hurdles back in 2008 in Beijing.
The other gold earned by the United States came in women's wrestling. Helen Louise Maroulis became the first US woman ever to win a gold in the sport, by upsetting her Japanese opponent Saori Yoshida in the 53kg division.
The US wasn't the only country to bring home glory on Thursday, though. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt became the first athlete ever to win three straight Olympic golds in the 200m sprint, a feat he had already accomplished in the 100m. Meanwhile, brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain finished first and second in the men's triathlon; for Alistair it was his second straight gold in the event, and for Jonathan it was an improvement over the bronze he earned in London. The host country of Brazil took gold in the men's beach volleyball tournament, with Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt vanquishing their Italian competition.
In all, medals were handed out in 29 events spread among 11 sports, with 25 of those events awarding gold medals. A total of 42 countries ended up earning hardware, with 16 of them grabbing gold -- Great Britain, Brazil, Croatia and Japan joined the US in earning multiple golds. Jordan, Mexico and Austria won their first medals of the Rio Games, with Jordan's being a gold in men's taekwondo.
Here's the full medal table:
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