United States At The Olympics
The United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.
US athletes have won a total of 2400 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 253 at the Winter Olympic Games. Most medals have been won in athletics (track and field) (738, 31%) and swimming (489, 20%). Thomas Burke was the first athlete to represent the United States at the Olympics. He took first place in both the 100 meters and the 400 meters of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. US athlete Michael Phelps is the most-decorated Olympic athlete of any nation, with 22 Olympic medals (including 18 golds).
The United States has won more gold and overall medals than any other country in the Summer Games and overall and also has the second-most overall medals at the Winter games, trailing only Norway. Historically, the United States mainly competed with the Soviet Union at summer Games and with the Soviet Union, Norway, and East Germany at the winter Games, but now they contend primarily with China at the summer Games for both the overall medal count and the gold medal count. The United States is the only country to have won at least one gold medal at every Winter Olympics, and has topped the total medal count at Lake Placid in the 1932 Winter Olympics and at Vancouver in the 2010 Winter Olympics. During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States set a record for most total medals of any country at a single Winter Olympics.
At the London 2012 games, the United States won the most gold medals as well as having the most medals in total.
Read more about United States At The Olympics: Hosted Games, Flagbearers
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