Olympic 2016 Medal Count: Updated Tally, List of Winners After Friday's Results
Rowing medals rained down in vast quantity at the 2016 Rio Olympics on Friday, where France made a lung-bursting run to gold in the lightweight men's double sculls final thanks to the efforts of Pierre Houin and Jeremie Azou.
Brothers Gary and Paul O'Donovan captured Ireland's first medal in Brazil with their silver finish, and Norwegian pair Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli completed the podium with their bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, Netherlands duo Maaike Head and Ilse Paulis clinched gold medals in the lightweight women's double sculls, while Canada and China took silver and bronze, respectively.
TOP NEWS
Every Team's UDFA Most Likely to Make Roster 🏈
Ranking Every Defense After Draft 📊
Bron Dismisses Jabari's Take 😯
The first gold medal of Day 7 went to the Dutch, who ended up far ahead of Canadian duo Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee, with Chinese pair of Huang Wenyi and Pan Feihong taking the bronze medal.
Great Britain, highly regarded for its rowing prowess, also took home another two gold medals after Helen Glover and Heather Stanning raced to victory in the women's pair final, and Team GB's men's four edged Australia.
Read on for a look at the latest overall medal standings, as well as recap of Friday's early medal winners.
Here's the updated medal table as of Friday:
Europe Dominates Rowing Drama
It was tight and tense in the lightweight men's double sculls final on Friday, as a little more than a half- second separated French victors Houin and Azou from their silver-medal competitors in the end.
France's bastions triumphed in a time of six minutes and 30.70 seconds at the Lagoa rowing venue, and OptaJean highlighted what an achievement this was for a team that's been out of the limelight in this event:
It was a brave outing from the O'Donovan brothers, however, who at one point looked capable of wresting the lead away from the French to bag Ireland an even grander maiden medal.
It wasn't meant to be in the end, but that didn't stop the Cork natives from bagging their country a truly memorable first in Rio de Janeiro:
And while that was a first taste of success for the O'Donovans, it certainly wasn't so for the pair of Glover and Stanning, who successfully defended their coxless pair gold medal in some fashion.
New Zealand duo Genevieve Behrent and Rebecca Scown made a valiant attempt at toppling the rowing veterans, but they just couldn't prevent Britain claiming another medal, per TalkSport's Ian Abrahams:
The Danish duo of Anne Andersen and Hedvig Rasmussen took bronze in the women's pair, and it was another European set, the Netherlands' Head and Paulis, who triumphed in the women's lightweight double sculls.
Canada could perhaps be saddened not to have challenged slightly more for first place as the Dutch ultimately finished free of fierce competition, although statistician Simon Gleave noted the Netherlands is still "behind schedule":
Canada and New Zealand did well to bring silver-medal finishes back to North America and Asia, respectively, but Europe very much continues to impose itself upon the rowing scene.
Archery
| Gold | Ku Bonchan | South Korea |
| Silver | Jean-Charles Valladont | France |
| Bronze | Brady Ellison | USA |
After taking down Brady Ellison in one of the most exciting matches of the Games, South Korea's Ku Bonchan had an easier time against France's Jean-Charles Valladont in the gold-medal match, winning 7-3.
Of the five sets, Ku recorded points in four of them while putting up more than one in three of them. Valladont on the other hand scored in just two sets.
Ku was remarkably consistent too, recording less than a nine on just one of 15 shots.
Athletics
| Gold | Almaz Ayana | Ethiopia | 29:17.45 |
| Silver | Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot | Kenya | 29:32.53 |
| Bronze | Tirunesh Dibaba | Ethiopia | 29:42.56 |
Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia laid waste to the competition in the women's 10,000-meter final, destroying the world record with a time of 29:17.45 and finishing more than 15 seconds ahead of silver medalist Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot of Kenya.
NBC Olympics showed the end of her race:
What made it even more impressive was that it was just the second time she had ever run the event, per Mina Kimes of ESPN.com.
| Gold | Wang Zhen | China | 1:19:14 |
| Silver | Cai Zelin | China | 1:19:26 |
| Bronze | Dane Bird-Smith | Australia | 1:19:37 |
China's Wang Zheng improved upon his bronze medal from the 2012 London Games with a gold in the 2016 Rio Games.
He just narrowly edged his fellow countryman Cai Zelin by just 0.12 seconds.
Cycling (Track)
| Gold | China |
| Silver | Russia |
| Bronze | Germany |
China's Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong set a new world record with a time of 32.107.
With a top speed of over 56km/h, they finished 0.3 seconds faster than the second-place Russians as they made up for a silver-medal performance in 2012.
| Gold | Great Britain |
| Silver | Australia |
| Bronze | Denmark |
The men's team pursuit saw Great Britain defend its 2012 title with a 0.8-second win over Australia.
With the win, one of Britain's four racers, Bradley Wiggins, became the most successful British Olympian ever with his fifth gold and eighth Olympic medal, overtaking Sir Chris Hoy (via Jack Wilson of the Daily Star).
Equestrian
| Gold | Germany | 81.936 |
| Silver | Great Britain | 78.595 |
| Bronze | United States | 76.667 |
In the fanciest Olympic event, Germany took home gold in the equestrian dressage team grand prix special, defeating silver medalists ad 2012 champions Great Britain by more than three points.
The United States won its first medal in this event since 2004, as it took home the bronze.
Fencing
| Gold | Russia |
| Silver | France |
| Bronze | United States |
Heading into the second-to-last matchup, Russia was trailing France 35-30 when Artur Akhmatkhuzin stepped up against Jean-Paul Tony Helissey.
The Russian out-touched the Frenchman 10-3, giving Russia a 40-38 lead with one rotation to go. Alexey Cheremisinov clinched the match, a 45-41 win with a 53 result against Erwan Le Pechoux.
The United States also made its way to the podium, defeating Italy for the bronze medal. It's the first American medal in this event since 1932.
Shooting
| Gold | Henri Junghaenel | Germany | 209.5 |
| Silver | Kim Jonghyun | South Korea | 209.5 |
| Bronze | Kirill Grigoryan | Russia | 187.3 |
Germany's Henri Junghaenel set an Olympic record in the 50-meter rifle prone finals with a score of 209.5.
In order to get the gold, he upset London 2012's silver medalist Kim Jonghyun.
| Gold | Diana Bacosi | Italy |
| Silver | Chiara Cainero | Italy |
| Bronze | Kimberly Rhode | United States |
In an all-Italian final, Diana Bacosi defeated Chiara Cainero 15-14 for the gold medal.
Bacosi hit her first nine targets, while Cainero missed two of her first four, which was a deficit she wasn't able to overcome.
Tennis
| Gold | Marc Lopez/Rafael Nadal | Spain |
| Silver | Florin Meregea/Horia Tecau | Romania |
| Bronze | Steve Johnson/Jack Sock | United States |
A familiar name in the tennis world took home gold in a not-so-familiar competition as Spain's Rafael Nadal, along with teammate Marc Lopez, defeated Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea of Romania in the men's doubles final.
It took three sets and almost two-and-a-half hours, but thanks to their domination on the first and second serves, Nadal collected his second-ever Olympic medal.
Trampoline Gymnastics
| Gold | Rosie MacLennan | Canada | 56.465 |
| Silver | Bryony Page | Great Britain | 56.040 |
| Bronze | Dan Li | China | 55.885 |
With a score of 56.465, Canada's Rosannagh MacLennan became the first woman ever to repeat as Olympic trampoline champion.
She just narrowly edged Great Britain's Bryony Page, who scored a 56.040.
Weightlifting
| Gold | Rim Jong Sim | North Korea | 274 |
| Silver | Darya aumava | Belarus | 258 |
| Bronze | Lidia Valentin Perez | Spain | 257 |
North Korea's Rim Jong Sim created history with her gold in the 75kg finals. On Friday, she became the first woman to ever win the 69kg gold, which came in London in 2012, and go up by six kilograms and win another Olympic medal.
She followed up a 121-kilogram snatch with a huge 153-kilogram clean-and-jerk to clinch gold as her margin of victory was 16 points.
| Gold | Kianoush Rostami | Iran | 396 |
| Silver | Tao Tian | China | 395 |
| Bronze | Gabriel Sincraian | Romania | 390 |
Iran's Kianoush Rostami broke his own world record by putting up a combined score of 396 in the men's 85-kilogram finals.
After a 179-kilogram snatch, he put up 217kg on the clean-and-jerk for Iran's first medal of the Rio Games.
Swimming
| Gold | Maya DiRado | United States | 2:05.99 |
| Silver | Katinka Hosszu | Hungary | 2:06.05 |
| Bronze | Hilary Caldwell | Canada | 2:07.54 |
Before the United States got a chance to know Maya DiRado, her Olympic career ended with a gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke.
She upset Hungary's Katinka Hosszu, who looked unbeatable in her first three events in Rio with golds in each one, by a razor-thin 0.06 seconds.
NBC Olympics showed DiRado's late charge, overtaking Hosszu in the final strokes:
DiRado ended her first and only Olympics with four medals, two of them gold, as she bows out of international competition in grand fashion.
| Gold | Joseph Schooling | Singapore | 50.39 |
| Silver | Michael Phelps | United States | 51.14 |
| Silver | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 51.14 |
| Silver | Laszlo Cseh | Hungary | 51.14 |
In his second-to-last Olympic race, Michael Phelps still managed to be a part of something that was never done before despite him not even winning.
Behind the impressive, Olympic record-breaking performance of Singapore's Joseph Schooling, Phelps finished in a three-way tie for silver with rival Chad le Clos from South Africa and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh.
NBC Olympics showed the unusual-looking podium:
Phelps has just one more Olympic swim left in his illustrious career, as he'll participate in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay on Saturday.
| Gold | Katie Ledecky | United States | 8:04.79 |
| Silver | Jazz Carlin | Great Britain | 8:16.17 |
| Bronze | Boglarka Kapas | Hungary | 8:16.37 |
It's unlikely that you will ever see a more dominating performance in the water on the Olympic stage. American Katie Ledecky set a world record in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8:04.79, almost 12 seconds quicker than silver medalist Carlin Jazz of Great Britain.
NBC Olympics showed where the rest of the field was at the time of Ledecky's finish:
The amount of time between her finish and the rest of the field gave Bleacher Report an opportunity to have some fun with Ledecky's dominance:
It's Ledecky's fourth gold of the 2016 Games and her fifth overall as she leads the Rio field with the most medals.
| Gold | Anthony Ervin | United States | 21.40 |
| Silver | Florent Manaudou | France | 21.41 |
| Bronze | Nathan Adrian | Nathan Adrian | 21.49 |
In his final Olympic race, 35-year-old Anthony Ervin set some Olympic history with his win in the 50-meter freestyle, via Rio 2016:
With the race being just one lap, Ervin did not lift his head to take a single breath as he didn't want to slow himself down in any way.
Had he lifted his head, he could've gotten silver as he finished just 0.01 seconds in front of France's Florent Manaudou.
.jpg?w=480 "Browns Football")
.jpg?w=600 "A.J. Brown Deal Not 'Firm'")
