It was a Day 8 to remember for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Americans captured a whopping 18 medals across several different sports on Saturday. Those medal triumphs included five Olympic titles that were won by the likes of stars Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Ryan Crouser.
With 61 total medals, Team USA opened up a 20-medal advantage over second-place France. And following a gold medal-less Day 7, the U.S. is now up to 14 golds and sits just two behind China for first.
Here’s a look back at those medal-winning moments and more top highlights from Day 8 of the Games:
Simone Biles reclaims vault gold, Jade Carey takes bronze
Simone Biles added another chapter to her comeback story with a gold medal triumph in the women’s vault. Biles, who won the event at the 2016 Rio Games, reclaimed the Olympic title with a score of 15.300. The 27-year-old broke out the Yurchenko double pike, also known as the Biles II, to score a 15.700 on her first attempt before posting a 14.900 on her second attempt.
Biles, the most-decorated American gymnast of all time, became just the second woman to win vault gold twice, joining Vera Casalavska of Czechoslovakia. With three gold medals in Paris (vault, individual all-around, team all-around), she now owns seven for her career and 10 Olympic medals overall.
Jade Carey, meanwhile, earned vault bronze with a score of 14.466, finishing behind silver medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Carey, who also helped Team USA win all-around gold, has won two medals in Paris and owns three for her career.
Katie Ledecky secures historic 9th gold with four-peat in 800m free
Katie Ledecky closed out her latest Olympics by making even more history. The 27-year-old fended off Australia’s reigning silver medalist Ariarne Titmus to win the women’s 800m freestyle for a fourth straight time, finishing in 8:11.04.
Ledecky joined Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to ever win Olympic gold four times in the same event. And with nine gold medals, she’s now tied with four other athletes for the second-most Olympic golds of all time. Only Phelps, who claimed 23 Olympic golds in his legendary career, owns more.
American Paige Madden (8:13.00) finished behind Titmus (8:12.29) to earn her second medal of the Paris Games and third overall. She also won silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay earlier in the Games where she teamed up with Ledecky. In addition to Ledecky’s 800m free gold and 4x200m free relay silver, she also claimed a 1500m free gold and 400m free bronze in Paris.
Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs finish 1-2 in shot put again
Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs continued to own the men’s shot put competition. Crouser, the world-record holder, became the first athlete to capture three Olympic shot put titles — and he won them consecutively. The 31-year-old, who battled elbow and pectoral injuries earlier this year, secured his three-peat with a throw of 22.90 meters.
Kovacs, meanwhile, earned his third straight silver in dramatic fashion. Amid rainy conditions at Stade de France, the 35-year-old jumped from fourth to second on his sixth and final throw of 22.15m. Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell also had a throw of 22.15m, but Kovacs won the tiebreaker with a superior second-best throw (21.71m to 20.00m).
American Payton Otterdahl had been sitting in a medal position before Kovacs’ final toss dropped him to fourth.
Vincent Hancock wins skeet gold over student Conner Prince
Vincent Hancock beat out Conner Prince to win his fourth Olympic men’s skeet gold medal. Hancock repeated as champion by hitting 58 of 60 targets. That was one more than Prince, who’s coached by Hancock and won silver for his first Olympic medal.
It marked the first time that the U.S. won gold and silver in the same shooting event since 1976. Hancock, 37, is the only skeet shooter to win gold more than once.
US breaks world record in mixed 4x100m medley final
A star-studded team of Americans combined to set a world record and earn the country’s first medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, which debuted at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games. Nic Fink, Torri Huske, Ryan Murphy and Gretchen Walsh finished in 3:37.43 to win gold, topping the previous world record of 3:37.58 set by reigning champ Great Britain in Tokyo.
It marked the fifth gold and eighth total Olympic medal for Murphy, the second gold and fifth medal for Huske, the first gold and third medal for Walsh, and the first gold and second medal for Fink.
Sha’Carri Richardson, Melissa Jefferson make 100m dash podium
Sha’Carri Richardson came up just short in her first bid for women’s 100m gold, as Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred stormed to gold. Alfred posted the top semifinal time of 10.84 seconds before dashing to the Olympic title in 10.72 seconds.
Richardson crossed the finish line in 10.87 to win silver for her first Olympic medal. Fellow American Melissa Jefferson also made the Olympic podium for the first time, finishing third with a time of 10.92.
Kate Douglass claims 200m IM silver
Kate Douglass added to her Paris medal haul in the women’s 200m individual medley. The Pelham, New York, native posted a time of 2:06.92 to claim silver, finishing behind 17-year-old Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh (2:06.56). McIntosh earned her third gold and fourth total medal in Paris.
The U.S. appeared to initially have a double-podium finish in the race when Alex Walsh placed third, but she was later disqualified due to an illegal turn. Australia’s Kaylee McKeown earned the bronze instead.
Douglass picked up her third medal of the Paris Games after winning the 200m breaststroke and getting silver in the 4x100m freestyle. She’s now a four-time Olympic medalist.
Netherlands snatches gold from US in mixed 4x400m thriller
The U.S. looked primed to win the mixed 4x400m relay after breaking the world record in the qualifying round. But the Netherlands had other plans.
On the last lap of the relay race, the Netherlands’ Femke Bol stormed from fourth to first place in a thrilling finish. She passed Team USA’s Kaylyn Brown in the final meters to secure gold for the Dutch, finishing in 3:07.74. The United States’ quartet of Brown, Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little and Bryce Deadmon took silver with a time of 3:07.74 after running a world-record 3:07.41 on Friday.
It was the third Olympic medal for Deadmon and Norwood, while Brown and Little made the podium for the first time.
Jasmine Moore earns Team USA’s first-ever women’s triple jump medal
The U.S. made the women’s triple jump podium for the first time ever thanks to Jasmine Moore, whose top attempt of 14.67 meters earned her the bronze medal. Moore was only beaten out by Dominica’s Thea LaFond (15.02m) and Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts (14.87m).
Stephen Nedoroscik wins pommel horse bronze
Stephen Nedoroscik won his first Olympic individual medal in the men’s pommel horse. The viral sensation from Worcester, Massachusetts, earned bronze with a score of 15.300, finishing behind Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan (15.533) and Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov (15.433).
Nedoroscik had previously helped the U.S. win men’s team all-around bronze, the country’s first medal in the event since the 2008 Beijing Games.
US earns silver, bronze in men’s tennis doubles
Team USA made up two of the three podium spots in men’s tennis doubles. In the gold medal match, the duo of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram lost to Australia’s Matthew Ebden and John Peers in a match tiebreaker 6-7, 7-6, 10-8. (The third set in Olympic doubles features a first-to-10, win-by-two format.) Ram, who was also a doubles runner-up at the 2016 Rio Games, earned his second Olympic medal, while Krajicek earned his first.
In the bronze medal match, Americans Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz defeated the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlásek 6-3, 6-4. Fritz and Paul each made the Olympic podium for the first time.
US wins first men’s eight rowing medal since 2008
Team USA got back onto the Olympic men’s eight rowing podium for the first time since 2008. The team of Rielly Milne, Pieter Quinton, Evan Olson, Peter Chatain, Chris Carlson, Clark Dean, Christian Tabash, Nick Rusher and Henry Hollingsworth captured bronze by finishing 2.40 seconds behind gold medalist Great Britain.
Dean is the only member of the U.S. squad who had prior Olympic experience.
Trinity Rodman’s heroics send USWNT back to semifinals
The USWNT and Japan were stuck in a scoreless deadlock for 105 minutes-plus minutes in the women’s soccer quarterfinals. Then, Trinity Rodman came to the rescue for the reigning bronze medalists.
In the waning moments of the first period of extra time, the 22-year-old Washington Spirit forward unleashed a world-class curler that found the top-left corner of the net. Rodman’s third goal of the Games proved to be the game-winner in a nail-biting 1-0 victory.
The USWNT now heads to a second straight Olympic semifinals, where it will face Germany on Tuesday with a spot in the gold medal match on the line.
Xander Schauffele tied for lead entering final round
U.S. reigning Olympic champion Xander Schauffele enters Sunday’s final round of the men’s golf tournament tied for the lead at 14-under. Schauffele had been tied atop the leaderboard at 11-under with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood before posting a 3-under 68 in Round 3.
But Schauffele is now even with Spain’s Jon Rahm, who rose up the leaderboard with a third-round score of 5-under. Fleetwood is one shot off the lead at 13-under while Matsuyama and Denmark’s Nicolai Højgaard, who shot 9-under in Round 3, are tied for fourth at 11-under.
American Scottie Scheffler is also within striking distance of a medal spot, sitting tied for sixth with Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, South Korea’s Tom Kim and Germany’s Thomas Detry at 10-under.
US men’s basketball enters knockout stage as top overall seed
The U.S. men’s basketball team, which was already bound for the quarterfinals, locked down the top overall seed in the knockout stage after a perfect 3-0 run through group play.
The Americans overcame a slow start against Puerto Rico and cruised to a 104-83 victory. Anthony Edwards scored a game-high 26 points off the bench for Team USA, shooting 11-for-15 from the field. Joel Embiid (15 points), Kevin Durant (11), LeBron James (10), Jayson Tatum (10) and Anthony Davis (10) also scored in double figures. Tatum posted a team-high 10 rebounds as well.
The four-time reigning Olympic champions will now face Brazil in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.