• By Prabhjot Singh

PARIS (TIP): Asia is emerging as the new powerhouse of Olympic sports. China, Japan, and the Republic of South Korea are among the top seven nations in medals tally in the 2024 Olympic Games as of today. The previous powerhouse of Olympic sports, the USA, was placed on Day 6 of the 2024 Olympic Games as China has taken the lead with 21 medals, including 11 gold medals. Though the USA leads the overall medals tally with 31 medals to its kitty, it has fewer gold medals than it used to get in previous editions of the Games.
The US dominance in some of the sports, including aquatics, has been blunted to an extent by China and France. China has won four gold medals in shooting, including the 50 m Rifle 3 positions for men on Thursday besides making three top finishes in diving.
China won the opening event in athletics – 20 km walk – besides taking a gold medal each in cycling and swimming.
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the USA finished at the top of the medals tally with 113 medals, including 39 gold and 41 silver medals. China finished second with 89 medals, including 38 gold medals. Japan was third with 27 gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze medals.
In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the USA topped the medals tally with 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze medals to aggregate 121 while second-placed Great Britain had 27 gold medals in its tally of 67. China was placed third with 70 medals, including 26 gold.

Things look different in the 2024 Olympic Games. On Day 6, China took the lead with 11 gold medals in its total tally of 21 followed by the hosts, France, with 26 medals, including eight gold. Japan is a close third with 15 medals including eight gold.
The USA has been relegated to fifth position with 31 medals that have only six gold medals. Interestingly Australia is ahead of the US with a tally of 17 medals, including seven gold.
The third Asian country in the top seven group is Korea with 12 medals, half of which are gold.
Another Asian country to do well so far is India which has three bronze medals in its kitty. As of now, India stands at the 42nd position. India had finished with seven medals in the last edition of the Games with a sole gold medal won in men’s javelin throw through Neeraj Chopra.
Canadian athletes, too, are doing well as they have won gold medals, both in Diving and Judo (women), to take their tally to seven with two silver and three bronze medals.
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Canada aggregated 24 medals, including seven gold and an equal number of silver medals. In io, the Canadian tally was 22 with four gold medals.