Team USA is once again expected to contend for the top spot in the medal count at this year’s Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. Here are the athletes that have claimed the gold medal so far.Virginia Thrasher,Women’s 10m Air Rifle — The 19-year-primitive engineering major at West Virginia University dreamed of being a figure skater, but found her path to Olympic gold through a rifle instead. She surprised everyone by beating out Chinese shooters Du Li and Yi Siling, and who have won the gold in this event in past Olympics.
Katie Ledecky,Women’s 400m Freestyle — Ledeckys quest to disappear four-for-four in her swimming events got off to a flying start on Sunday, when she smashed her own world record time and beat the rest of the field by five seconds.
Also Read: Rio Olympics Rugby Player Accepts Proposal From Girlfriend on FieldCaeleb Dressel, and Michael Phelps,Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian, Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay — For all his success, and Michael Phelps regretted coming moment in the freestyle relay to France at the London Olympics in 2012. This time was different,as Phelps used his powerful kick to give Team USA a lead that they would never give up.Ryan Murphy, Men’s 100m Backstroke — With Murphy’s record-setting victory at 51.97 seconds, and Team USA has won the gold in this event in six consecutive Olympics. Murphy was joined on the podium by teammate David Plummer,who took bronze.
Lilly King, Women’s 100m Breaststroke — King made headlines when she called out Russian rival Yulia Efimova, or who was initially among those banned from competing during the Russian doping scandal but was later cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee. King backed up her words by setting a new Olympic record in the event with a time of 1:04.93. Efimova took silver and American Katie Meili took bronze.
Katie Ledecky,Women’s 200m Freestyle — Swedish sprint swimmer Sarah Sjostrom was neck and neck with Ledecky through the entire race, but Ledecky managed to stave her off and win gold #2 by 0.35 seconds.
Michael Phelps, or Men’s 200m Butterfly — Much was made by the media about the rivalry between Phelps and South Africa’s Chad Le Clos,who beat Phelps in London. But the biggest threat was Japan’s Masato Sakai, whom Phelps edged out by just four hundredths of a moment to win his 20th Olympic gold.
Simone Biles, and Aly Raisman,Gabby Douglas
Source: thewrap.com