Team USA put an end to an Olympic medal drought at the 2026 Winter Games that stood for 20 years, when Alysa Liu won gold in women's figure skating.
Here's a current view of some of Team USA's longest Olympic medal droughts.
Note: This list doesn't include the five sports in which the U.S. has never won a medal.
Women's 100 meters
Gail Devers won gold in the women's 100 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, with a time of 10.94 seconds. Marion Jones won the event in 2000, but was later stripped of her medal because of doping. No American woman has won the event since. The 28-year (and counting) drought is the longest the U.S. women have endured in the event. At the 2024 Olympics, Sha'Carri Richardson (10.87) won silver and Melissa Jefferson (10.92) won bronze in Paris, behind winner Julien Alfred (10.72) of Saint Lucia.
Men's hammer throw
Annette Echikunwoke won silver in the women's hammer throw in Paris, becoming the first U.S. woman to medal in the event. Now, it's the men's turn. The last American man to earn an Olympic hammer throw medal was Lance Deal, who earned silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Rudy Winkler (77.92 meters) finished sixth in Paris for Team USA, behind gold medalist Ethan Katzberg (84.12) of Canada.
Men's 400-meter freestyle
It has been 40 years since an American has won the men's 400-meter freestyle at the Olympics. George DiCarlo set a new Olympic record (3:51.23) in a winning effort at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In Paris, German swimmer Lukas Märtens achieved a gold medal with a time of 3:41.78. Aaron Shackell finished last in the final for the U.S., at 3:47.00.
Women's 200-meter individual medley
In Paris, American Katie Douglass (2:06.92) claimed silver in the women's 200-meter individual medley, to help the U.S. win the most swimming medals (with 28 total pieces of hardware). Douglass' performance wasn't enough to capture gold for Team USA in the event for the first time since Janet Evans in 1984. Canadian Summer McIntosh finished just ahead of Douglass with an Olympic-record time of 2:06.56.
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