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USA 1,000th gold medal comes from swimming with win in women's medley relay

RIO DE JANEIRO — At a Games where the United States set the record for the biggest number of female athlete ever at an Olympics, four of them reached a historic milestone.

The flags of China, left, U.S., center, and Russia hang above the gymnasts during the medal ceremony for the artistic gymnastics women's team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 9, 2016. (Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky, AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO — At a Games where the United States set the record for the biggest number of female athlete ever at an Olympics, four of them reached a historic milestone.

The relay clinched the United States’ 1,000th Summer Olympics gold medal on Saturday night here at the Aquatic Stadium.

The relay of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won America’s first gold of the night in the final night of swimming competition here to reach the milestone.

The American team got the historical count to 997 heading into Saturday’s competition.

The women’s eight rowing won gold Saturday morning, capturing its 11th consecutive world championship or Olympic medal.

Later Saturday, long jumper Jeff Henderson won on his final jump in dramatic fashion.

That set up the U.S. swimmers to reach the milestone.

The USA entered the Rio Games with 977 golds, a number that was slightly in dispute.

Olympic historian Bill Mallon had the United States with 976 golds coming into Rio. The U.S. Olympic Committee settled on the number kept by Gracenote, an Olympics database. That 977 total counts a gymnastics team gold from 1904 won by a Philadelphia club that included an Austrian gymnast.

The Americans were the first country to reach the milestone, and it will be a very long time until another team does.

The United States has around a 600-medal lead over the Soviet Union. Combined, the Soviet Union and Russia have 580 golds.

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