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- Kerron Clement, Bershawn Jackson, and Angelo Taylor of US (l-r), silver, bronze and gold medal winners in Men's 400-meter hurdles finals, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, China.
USA Olympic medal count
Story By: Bea Karnes and AP
Source: AP
A check of the Olympic leaderboard shows the U.S. on top with 73 medals -- 23 gold, 24 silver and 26 bronze. China continues to lead the pack in gold medals won with 39. Overall China has 68 medals with 14 silver and 15 bronze going along with the 39 gold. Russia is third overall with 36 medals.
Henry Cejudo of Colorado Springs, the 21-year-old wrestling prodigy who had wrestled in only one world-level senior tournament before Beijing, has won the Olympic gold medal in men's freestyle 55-kilogram wrestling. Cejudo, crying the moment the match ended and wrapping himself in an American flag, defeated Tomohiro Matsunaga of Japan 2-2 on tiebreaker and 3-0 in the best-of-three match. Cejudo was 31st in last year's world championships, his only prior tournament at this level. Cejudo, the son of undocumented Mexican aliens who bypassed a
college career to try to become an Olympian, assures the United States of winning a freestyle wrestling gold for the ninth consecutive Olympics at which it has competed.
Florida's Anna Tunnicliffe won the gold medal in the laser radial class in sailing competition. She won the gold on total points after 10 races. What makes the victory all the more impressive is the fact that at the midway mark of the race she was in ninth place.
The U.S. women's water polo team will go for the gold on Thursday when they play the winner of Hungary-Netherlands. Brenda Villa of Commerce, California, scored her third goal of the game against Australia today with 1:00 remaining to give the U.S. a 9-8 victory in semifinal action. Villa led the U.S. with her three goals while Brittany Hayes added a pair. The win guarantees the U.S. no worse than a silver medal. That makes the U.S. the only nation to win a medal in each of the Olympic Games which has featured women's water polo. The American
team won the silver in 2000 and the bronze in 2004.
The team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh have advanced to the gold medal match in women's beach volleyball. Going back to 2004, the team of Walsh and May-Treanor has won 12 straight Olympic matches. They defeated a team from Brazil Tuesday 21-12 and 21-14. The gold medal game will be Thursday.
Americans Chris Colwill and Troy Dumais have advanced to the finals of the men's 3 meter springboard diving competition tonight. In the semifinal today, Colwill was sixth overall while Dumais was 10th. He Chong of China led the pack with Canada's Alexandre Despatie second.
The U.S. women's basketball team has its final preliminary game tonight. The Americans take a record of 5-and-0 in their game with South Korea.
The U.S. baseball team has its penultimate preliminary game tonight. The Americans are facing the club from Chinese Taipei. The final prelim is tomorrow against Japan. The U.S. team currently has a record of 3-and-2.
