United States win 1,000th Summer Olympics gold medal

The United States won its 1,000th Olympic gold medal thanks to ist women's 4x100 metre medley relay team at the Rio Games.

The medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won the penultimate swimming event of the 2016 Olympics.

The United States won its 1,000th Olympic gold medal thanks to ist women's 4x100 metre medley relay team at the Rio Games.

The medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won the penultimate swimming event of the 2016 Olympics.

The total far outdistances the next-highest country, Russia, who have 577 golds if counting all the various incarnations under which they have competed.

Michael Phelps, of course, leads all Olympians with 22 gold medals and has made the biggest individual contribution to the total.

Legends Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis (nine each) are next on the list, followed by swimmers Jenny Thompson and Matt Biondi and 1900-08 long, high and triple jumper Ray Ewry with eight golds each.

The two highest gold-medal totals in an individual Olympics for USA came in years the country hosted - 1904 in St. Louis (76) and 1984 in Los Angeles (83).

Overall, USA have 2,453 total medals, including 769 silver and 684 bronze.