First week of Rio 2016: US leads the team competition.

Фото: Depositphotos

For the first 7 competition days of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the US team took a confident lead in the unofficial medal table. The Russian team, which suffered numerous losses against the background of the doping scandal, faced not only the absence of a number of candidates for medals (suspended national teams in weightlifting and athletics), but sometimes with a negative attitude from rivals and spectators.

Phelps and the rest

American athletes already have 50 medals, of which 20 are gold. As is tradition during the opening week of the Summer Games, the lion's share of Team USA's awards came from swimmers - 14 top awards.

Among the main characters, of course, is the legend of modern sports, Michael Phelps, who has already managed to beat record of the ancient Olympics - He already has 22 gold medals to his name. In Rio, Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly and medley, as well as, together with his teammates, in two relay races - 100 and 200 meters freestyle.

His only defeat at the Olympics-2016 Phelps suffered a hundred-meter butterfly battle, gold which sensationally won 21-year-old Singapore swimmer Joseph Skuling.

4 also won gold medals in the account of Katie Ledeka, who made a splash in 2012 in London, becoming the champion at the distance of 800 meters at the age of 15. In Rio, Ledeka won freestyle at 200, 400 and 800 meters freestyle, and also helped her team to win gold in the 4 relay for 200 meters.

Another rising star of American and world navigation, 20-year-old Simone Manuel has achieved a historic achievement. Winning the race 100 freestyle meters, she is became the first black Olympic swimming champion. Moreover, based on the results of the swim, two gold medals were awarded at once - the same result as Manuel showed 16-year-old Canadian Penny Oleksiak, who became the first Olympic champion born in the 13st century - June 2000, XNUMX.

The American became the first dark-skinned Olympic champion in swimming. Photo: TeamUSA

Swimming competitions at the Rio Olympics will end on Saturday, and Michael Phelps still has a chance to improve on his already phenomenal achievement. In total, he already has 27 medals from 4 Olympic Games - in addition to gold, 3 more silver and 2 bronze.

Another sport in which American women still have no equal is artistic gymnastics. First, the US women's team won gold in the team championship, and then the team leaders - 19-year-old Simone Biles and Alexandra Raisman - golden double in individual all-around. Biles became first, Raizman second, ahead of Russian Aliya Mustafina in the dispute for silver.

The closest pursuer of athletes from the United States at the X-NUMX Games medal table is the Chinese, who excelled at the Beijing 2016 home Olympiad years ago. Following the first week of the Olympic Games in Rio, athletes from the Middle Kingdom 8 awards, including 37 gold.

Chinese athletes have reached the top level of weightlifting competitions four times, and they have won three more in diving, in which few can challenge them today. The Chinese have 3 more first places - quite predictably - in table tennis.

Surprises in fencing

The Russian team, which in 2012 in London became fourth in the medal table, is still in 7th place. There are 5 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze medals, for a total of 22 medals.

Quite unexpectedly, at the Games in Rio, the Russian team won 3 gold in fencing. First Yana Egoryan became championIn the tournament she was a sensationalist, sensationally defeating her titled compatriot Sophia the Great in the finals, then her team-mate, Inferita Inna Deriglazova, became the gold medalist of the Games.

And on Friday, the men's foil fencing team won the team championship - Alexey Cheremisinov, Artur Akhmatkhuzin and Timur Safin in the final against the French team won back a 10-point deficit and won a strong-willed victory with a score of 45:41.

Two other gold awards for the Russian national team brought judoists. First, Beslan Mudranov, a native of Kabardino-Balkaria, won in the weight category up to 60 kg, and then Hasan Khalmurzayev from the Republic of Ingushetia won the competition among athletes up to 81 kg, having won the American bout Travis Stevens in the final fight.

The main hope of the Russian swimming team, Yulia Efimova, who only at the last moment received the right to participate in the Olympic Games, failed to win the gold medal. However, at both breaststroke distances - 100 and 200 meters - Efimova won silver medals.

Efimova had the hardest time in the hundred meters, which was preceded by absentee conflict with an American Lilly King. 19-year-old King on the eve of the final heat, she criticized the Russian woman, stating that athletes who have been caught using doping at least once should be forever denied the right to compete.

The athletes ended up on the neighboring lanes, and the American woman won, defiantly refusing to congratulate Efimov on the silver medal both in the pool, right after the swim, and at the awards ceremony. In addition, Efimov, as well as several other Russian swimmers, was greeted with disgruntled roar by spectators gathered in the Olympic pool.

Lilly King was unable to get through to the finals at 200-meter distance, and Japanese ria Kaneto, who won with a noticeable advantage, was Yulia Efimova’s main rival. The last chance for gold for Efimova will be the combined relay, the final swim of which will take place on Saturday.

Efimova was not the only Russian athlete to be booed during the first week of the Rio Games. The same fate awaited representatives of the men's relay team, one of whose members, Vladimir Morozov, was also allowed to participate in the Olympics only at the last moment.

In addition, the disgruntled rumble, as reported, the emergence of the Russian national team met during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which took place on August 5.

Another scandal was associated with the refusal of the Egyptian judoist Islam El-Shehabi shake hands to his rival from Israel Oru Sasson after defeat in the first round of the Olympics-2016. After the bout, Sasson made a bow in judo, but El-Shehabi ignored his outstretched hand, taking a few steps back.

Israeli Or Sasson, meanwhile, won a bronze medal at the end of the competition and brought Israel the second medal of Games-2016. First has won judo warden Yarden Jerby, whose bronze was the first for Israel at the Olympic Games over the past 8 years.

Medals of the former USSR

Among other teams representing the former Soviet Union, two gold medals of the Kazakhstan national team should be noted (13-place in the medal table). One of them was brought by swimmer Dmitry Balandin at a distance of 200 meters breaststroke. This gold medal was the first in swimming for Kazakhstan. The second highest award was won by the weightlifter Nijat Rakhimov.

The Ukrainian national team does not yet have gold medals, but gymnast Oleg Vernyaev stopped literally a step away from it. The 22-year-old Donetsk native was leading the all-around, the program's most prestigious event, heading into the final event. However, the judges gave preference to the main favorite of the competition - London 2012 Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura from Japan.

Another silver medal of the Ukrainian team was brought by the shooter Sergei Kulish, and the bronze was won by the swordsman Olga Harlan, who had previously won a medal of the same dignity in London and the Beijing-2008 gold medal in team competitions.

Oleg Vernyaev. Photo: National Olympic Committee of Ukraine

Two silver medals in the account of judoists from Azerbaijan Rustam Orujov and Elmar Gasimov.

The Georgian national team also has two medals in judo, but one of them is silver (Varlam Liparteliani) and one is bronze (Lasha Shavdatuashvili).

Another 2 medals - both bronze - were won by judoists from Uzbekistan (Dierbek Urozboev and Rishad Sobirov).

The Lithuanian national team was noted for its successful performance in rowing - silver in the men's duet (Griskonis-Ritter) and bronze in the women's double (Vistartaite-Valchukaite).

Belarusian athletes so far have only one Olympic medal - silver won by Daria Naumova in the weightlifting competition.

The teams of Kyrgyzstan (weightlifter Izzat Artykov) and Estonia (four in rowing) have one bronze medal each.

The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will end on August 21.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Rio-2016: a gold double of American gymnasts, Russia has bronze

Michael Phelps got the Olympic gold 22 and broke the antique record

American became the first dark-skinned Olympic champion in swimming

A serious conflict broke out between the American and Russian swimmers in Rio.

Rio-2016: Russians won gold and silver in fencing, bronze from Ukraine

Rio 2016: judo player brought Russia the third gold in a fight with an American

Israel received the first Olympic medal for 8 years

Olympiad: a judoka from Egypt did not shake the hand of an Israeli. VIDEO

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