Olympic 2016 Medal Count: Updates on Saturday's Medal Standings for Each Nation
The 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro move into the final stretch beginning on Saturday with another full day of action that includes 21 medal events in nine different disciplines, the penultimate round in men's golf and semifinal matches in men's tennis.
In addition to those marquee events, Usain Bolt will step onto the track in Rio for the first time in the men's 100-meter preliminaries. Assuming he moves through, Sunday will be his day to go for a third straight gold medal in the event.
Before taking a dive into the individual medal events that took place on the eighth day of Olympic action, here are the latest medal standings for each nation:
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Shooting: Men's Skeet
| Gold | Gabriele Rossetti (Italy) |
| Silver | Marcus Svensson (Sweden) |
| Bronze | Abdullah Alrashidi (Independent Olympic Athletes) |
Italy's Gabriele Rossetti locked down the third gold medal for his country with a 16-15 victory over Sweden's Marcus Svensson in the finals.
Svensson had an opportunity to tie the match, but he was just off the mark with his final shot, helping Rossetti secure the win after he fired a perfect score in the finals. This is the first Olympic appearance for Rossetti, who is also a police officer, per
There was also high drama in the bronze-medal match between Abdullah Alrashidi, who was competing as an independent, and Ukraine's Mikola Milchev.
The 52-year-old Alrashidi was competing in his sixth consecutive Olympics in search of his first career Olympic medal. He would end up getting it with a 16-14 victory over Milchev.
Shooting: Men's 25M Rapid-Fire Pistol
| Gold | Christian Reitz (Germany) | 34 |
| Silver | Jean Quiquampoix (France) | 30 |
| Bronze | Li Yuehong (China) | 27 |
Christian Reitz extended Germany's run of dominance in the shooting events by capturing a gold medal in the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event. He joins fellow Germans Barbara Engleder and Henri Junghaenel with shooting victories in these Olympics.
The 34 points for Reitz in the finals tied an Olympic record, per Matthew Micali of NBCOlympics.com, and he was able to defeat Jean Quiquampoix by four points for the win.
Quiquampoix looked like he was going to pull off one of the great comeback efforts in these games. He needed a perfect score earlier in the event to avoid falling outside of the top four, which he would get.
In the medal round, Quiquampoix and China's Li Yuehong were neck and neck until the third round of a shoot off when Quiquampoix got another perfect five to secure a silver medal at just 20 years old.
Rowing: Men's Single Sculls
| Gold | Mahe Drysdale (New Zealand) | 6:41.34 |
| Silver | Damir Martin (Croatia) | 6:41.34 |
| Bronze | Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) | 6:44.10 |
It will be hard for any event in these Olympics to top the finish of the men's single sculls final, which saw New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale squeak past Croatia's Damir Martin on a photo finish to capture a gold medal.
Just in case the times for Drysdale and Martin don't properly convey how close the finish was, BBC Sport captured the image of Drysdale's scull inching past the finish line first:
When the race initially ended, the graphic NBC uses to show who finished in the top three spots initially had Martin finishing first.
It was so close that the last rower to put his oar in the water to get that final burst was going to come out on top. Martin and Drysdale went back and forth throughout the race, culminating in one of the most dramatic finishes of the 2016 Olympics.
Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic finished third to take home the bronze medal. It's the third consecutive Olympics in which he has medaled, previously winning silver in this event in 2008 and 2012.
Rowing: Women's Eight
| Gold | United States | 6:01.49 |
| Silver | Great Britain | 6:03.98 |
| Bronze | Romania | 6:04.10 |
There was not as much drama in the women's eight race, though it did go as expected, with the United States capturing its third straight Olympic gold medal and 11th straight major title.
Katelin Snyder, Amanda Elmore, Elle Logan, Meghan Musnicki, Tessa Gobbo, Lauren Schmetterling, Amanda Polk, Kerry Simmonds and Emily Regan bid their time most of the week after finishing first during Monday's heat.
The Americans' closest competitors coming into Rio de Janeiro were the team from Great Britain, which nearly pulled off an upset earlier this year by finishing half of a boat length behind at the Rowing World Cup.
Unfortunately for Great Britain, there was no miracle to be had on Saturday. The team was able to hold off a rally from a tenacious Romanian team to take home a silver medal by 0.12 seconds.
Rowing: Women's Single Sculls
| Gold | Kim Brennan (Australia) | 7:21.54 |
| Silver | Gevvie Stone (United States) | 7:22.92 |
| Bronze | Jingli Duan (China) | 7:24.13 |
Kim Brennan captured her first Olympic gold medal after previously winning bronze in this event four years ago. Her best Olympic finish in any event prior to Saturday was a silver medal in doubles sculls.
It was unclear during the first heat if Brennan would be able to finish her quest for a gold medal after a disappointing third-place showing in which she finished 11 seconds behind Kenia Lechuga.
Brennan has steadily been building to this moment in the spotlight, winning gold at last year's World Championships by knocking off 2012 Olympic gold medalist Miroslava Knapkova in the process.
Gevvie Stone became the first American rower to medal in this event since Michelle Guerette also captured a silver medal in 2008. Stone did try to make a late run against Brennan to make the finish more dramatic, but it was not to be.
Jingli Duan was the first Chinese woman to medal in the women's singles sculls. She clocked in more than one second behind Stone, but this was a breakthrough moment for her to help bring more attention to the sport in her home country.
Rowing: Men's Eight
| Gold | Great Britain | 5:29.63 |
| Silver | Germany | 5:30.96 |
| Bronze | Netherlands | 5:31.59 |
After dominating the heat, Great Britain finished the job in the men's eight by taking home the country's first gold in this event since 2000.
Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail noted after Great Britain crossed the finish line how appropriate the song choice over the sound system turned out to be:
Germany, which entered the finals after winning the second heat, improved on its initial time of 5:38.22 to finish a close second to capture the silver medal. It's a disappointing finish for the team that came into the race as the favorite after winning gold four years ago.
The Netherlands finished behind the United States in the repechage but still qualified for the final by finishing in the top four. It built off that initial disappointment to take home a hard-fought bronze medal.
Track and Field: Men's Discus
| Gold | Christoph Harting (Germany) | 68.37 |
| Silver | Piotr Malachowski (Poland) | 67.55 |
| Bronze | Daniel Jasinski (Germany) | 67.05 |
It didn't quite match the drama of the men's singles sculls race, but Germany's Christoph Harting saved his gold-medal throw for the end of the men's discus.
Harting moved into the top spot with a perfect throw of 68.37 meters to push Piotr Malachowski down into the silver-medal position.
Per Gracenote Olympic, Harting's win also made history because his brother previously won an Olympic gold in this event:
The 33-year-old Malachowski was moments away from winning his first career Olympic gold medal. His runner-up finish marks his second silver medal of the Games, previously taking the honor in 2008.
It was a good day for Germany in the discus throw, as Daniel Jasinski joined Harting on the podium with a bronze medal. He picked a good time for his best career finish in competition. The 27-year-old came in eighth at the European Championships last month.
Tennis: Women's Medal Round
| Gold | Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) |
| Silver | Angelique Kerber (Germany) |
| Bronze | Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) |
Monica Puig made history for Puerto Rico on Saturday, defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber two sets to one to take the women's gold medal.
Puig is the first woman in history to win a medal Puerto Rico and the country's first athlete to ever win gold.
"I"m speechless," Puig said, per Bill Chappell of NPR. "I wanted it so bad. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this would happen.
The match saw Puig and Kerber split the first two sets 6-4 apiece before the Puerto Rican kicked it in high gear. She raced out to a 5-0 lead in the deciding set before taking it in a hard-fought seventh game 6-1.
Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic brought home bronze, defeating American Madison Keys in three sets.
Track and Field: Women's 100M
| Gold | Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) |
| Silver | Tori Bowie (United States) |
| Bronze | Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) |
Jamaica's Elaine Thompson sprinted her way to glory, beating American Tori Bowie and countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to take the women's 100-meter sprint.
Thompson finished with a time of 10.71 seconds, still well off the world-record time of 10.49 seconds, set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1984. The win is the 24-year-old's first-ever gold medal and her first triumph overall on the world stage in an individual event. (She won gold in the 4x100 relay at last year's World Championships.)
Thompson's performance bordered on dominant, as she took the lead early and never relented. Bowie, a 25-year-old Mississippi native, was a full tenth of a second behind as she battled as part of a three-woman race to stand on the podium. Fraser-Pryce and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast raced her neck-and-neck but Bowie was fractions ahead crossing the line.
Ta Lou and Fisher-Pryce tied initially but video review showed the defending gold medalist was barely ahead.
Swimming: Women's 4x100 Relay
| Gold | United States |
| Silver | Australia |
| Bronze | Denmark |
The women captured a historic medal for the United States, earning the country's 1,000th gold medal at the Summer Olympics with their performance in the 4x100-meter relay.
Kathleen Baker swam the backstroke, Lilly King the breaststroke, Dana Vollmer the fly and Simone Manuel freestyled as the anchor. The U.S. finished the race in 3:53.13, more than a second ahead of silver medalist Australia.
The Aussies, who won the 4x100-meter freestyle, defeated bronze medalist Denmark by just one-thousandth of a second.
Baker and King dug a bit of a hole for the U.S. early, but Vollmer captured the lead in the fly and Manuel had no trouble finishing things off.
Swimming: Men's 4x100 Relay
| Gold | United States |
| Silver | France |
| Bronze | Australia |
Michael Phelps finished his Olympic career off in style, winning his 23rd career gold medal as part of the United States' triumphant relay team Saturday.
The final swimming event saw Phelps take the lead for good for the U.S. in the third leg. France earned silver, more than a half-second behind the United States' time of 3:09.92. Australia rounded out the medalists with a bronze.
The United States has dominated the 4x100 medley. They have won gold in every Olympics they've entered since 1960.
Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller and Nathan Adrian also earned gold for the U.S. But the real story here is Phelps, who finishes his Olympic career as the most storied performer in the history of the event.
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