When Katharine Berkoff won bronze in the women's 100-meter backstroke at the Paris Games, she became the owner of the 600th Olympic medal earned by a US swimming athlete ever. The victory also took the US to another historic milestone: medal No. 3,000, collected in the Summer and Winter Games combined, the most of any nation. Berkoff's teammate Regan Smith won silver in the event for the 2,999th medal, NPR reports. Team USA marked the moment with a photo of the two in a post on X. The previous medal was the all-around gold won by the US women's gymnastics team. "It's just super special," Berkoff said, per Yahoo Sports. "I've been dreaming of being at the Olympics for my whole life."
The US might be caught in the all-time medal rankings someday, but it won't be by the No. 2 nation. The Soviet Union is next with 1,204 medals, by the count of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage; the former Soviet republics now compete independently. Germany is third, with 1,058 medals, per CBS News. The swimming team has more than twice as many medals as the next nation, Australia. The foundation counts one medal per event regardless of the number of athletes competing in it. (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)
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