Team USA's women are responsible for 26 of the gold medals that the country won during the 2024 Paris Olympics. That number is the highest count by a women's team in a single Olympics, and accounts for 65 percent of the country's old medals, according to ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
The women won multiple goal medals today to bring the USA into a tie with China. Each country won 40 gold medals, the first stalemate in Summer Olympic history. Without the efforts of stars like swimmer Katie Ledecky, soccer player Mallory Swanson and basketball's Kelsey Plum and Diana Taurasi, then a gold medal victory for the red, white and blue wouldn't have happened. So, what's next for the leading women of Team USA?
Diana Taurasi, Kelsey Plum on different paths moving forward
Taurasi is arguably the greatest United States Olympian in basketball ever. She's the only player in the sport to hold six gold medals. With the women's basketball team win in Paris, Taurasi surpassed former national team guard Sue Bird in total gold medals held by a US Olympian.
However, at 42 years old, this is likely her final Olympic games. It's now up to her teammate Plum to take the reins. The 29-year-old will be 33 at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, the perfect age to take over as the veteran leader. The Las Vegas Aces guard just won her second gold medal Sunday morning in Paris. It was also her first in five-by-five basketball, as the gold medal she captured in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was in three versus three.
Plum and her fellow Aces teammate A'ja Wilson are ready to be the leaders of the next generation of Team USA's women's basketball program. It will be up to them to follow the precedent set by fellow women's national team leaders Bird, Taurasi and Lisa Leslie.
Katie Ledecky, Mallory Swanson continue to add to their Olympic legacies
While Taurasi is likely America's best Olympic basketball player, Ledecky might be the country's best overall female Olympian of all time. She's the fifth highest ranking Olympian of all time in terms of total medals, with 14. She's tied for second in overall gold medals with nine. Finally, she's tied for first with gymnast Larisa Latynina in gold medals won by a female athlete. Oh, one more thing: she's the second highest U.S Olympian in terms of medal count, only behind legendary men's swimmer Michael Phelps with 28 overall.
Women's soccer has been one of Team USA's top programs for quite a while now. Swanson played in her 100th game with the senior national team during the gold medal game against Brazil on Sunday. In the 57th minute, she scored the lone goal in the match, spearheading her team to a 1-0 victory in France. As long as she is a part of the program, then new coach Emma Hayes will have a very reliable leader to build around moving forward.
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