With the Olympics ending, it's clear my dooming from a week ago about the US underperforming proved exaggerated. But it wasn't wrong. Despite winning the gold medals and total medals races, the US finished with fewer in both categories than Rio, though only by a few.
But those overall numbers are deceptive because the US totals were boosted by sports that weren't on the program in Rio. The US won golds in men's 800M swimming, women's 1500M swimming, women's surfing, and women's 3x3 basketball, all of which made their debuts in Tokyo.
The US took silver in baseball and softball, and both of those were a one-time thing for Japan. They weren't on the bill in Rio and won't be in Paris (though they might make it back for LA). I think I'm overlooking a gold, too.
So on a per-sport basis, the US clearly didn't do as well as they did in Rio, where they had their best Olympics since 1984. We definitely closed well at the end to surpass China. But the toplines as usual don't tell the whole story.
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