Sports in the United States for the United States. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,522 medals (1,022 of them being gold) at the Summer Olympic Games and another 305 at the Winter Olympic Games. Most medals have been won in athletics (track and field) (801, 32%) and swimming (553, 22%). American swimmer Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold. The United States has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games except the 1980 Summer Olympics hosted by the Soviet Union in Moscow, which it boycotted because of the
Summer Olympic Games count Olympiads, not the Games themselves, per the Olympic Charter. This contrasts with the Winter Olympic Games, which ignore the cancelled Winter Games of 1940 & 1944 in their numeric count." Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games () or the Games of the Olympiad, first held in 1896, is a quadrennial international multi-sport event. The most recent Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) organises the Games and oversees the host city's preparations. In each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals are awarded for second place, and bronze