The United States sits atop the medal table at the Summer Olympics, and athletes from the greater Washington area are a huge reason why. While only 30 of the 554 members of Team USA are from the region, our local athletes currently have earned over a third of America’s gold medals so far in Rio de Janeiro.
That means the region, if it was its own country, would be in 3rd place for gold medals, behind the rump United States, Great Britain, China, and Russia. It would be tied with South Korea for 10th place in the overall medal tally—after the diminished US, China, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, and Australia.
Because several of the gold medals come from the same men’s 4×200 freestyle relay team, more DC area athletes have medaled than the official tally reflects. Here are the locals that have made it onto the podium:
Bethesda native Katie Ledecky (swimming): 4 gold, 1 silver
Baltimore native Michael Phelps (swimming): 5 gold (1 from 4×200 freestyle relay), 1 silver
Rockville native Jack Conger (swimming): 1 gold (from 4×200 freestyle relay, preliminary round)
Richmond native Townley Haas (swimming): 1 gold (from 4×200 freestyle relay)
Springfield native Ginny Thrasher (shooting): 1 gold
Bel Air native Chase Kalisz (swimming): 1 silver
Portsmouth native LaShawn Merritt (track and field): 1 bronze
Washington metro area total: 10 gold (plus two 4×200 freestyle relay swimmers), 3 silver, 1 bronze
