10 Events the US Needs to Win to Overtake China in Olympics Gold Medal Race

China still holds a lead in gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics over all other countries with just four days remaining, despite late heroics by Americans late Wednesday night.

There are only four days remaining in the COVID-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, and China holds a lead of 32-27 over the United States when it comes to gold medals. The U.S. leads the overall medal tally with 83—followed by China's 71—but that was expected as the U.S. had way more athletes at these Games.

Most countries in the world see the total number of gold medals as the supreme athletic nation. If the United States wants to be that country, then its athletes will need to probably win 10 more events (or more) by Sunday, which is when these Games come to a close.

China led the U.S. by six gold medals before Thursday's events began in Tokyo. However, the Americans won gold in the shot put, so China now holds an advantage of five golds over the United States. China is already a finalist in two table tennis gold medal matches: men's doubles and women's doubles. The country is already a favorite to win the final 10-meter diving events for both men's and women's.

Should China win those events alone, then its gold medals would reach 36. That means the U.S. would still need 10 more gold medals to take the 2020 crown if China won those golds, and no other top finishes.

Here are 10 events the Americans would need to win in order to perhaps claim the most gold medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

1. Women's beach volleyball — The tandem of April Ross and Alix Klineman got past the semifinal round and into the gold medal match with their sweep of Switzerland on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Tokyo). Now the Americans face a tough Australian squad for the gold medal.
2. Women's basketball — The American women have won the last six Olympic gold medals, and eight of the last nine. They're heavily-favored to win another gold this weekend.
3. Men's basketball — USA Basketball certainly hasn't compiled a "Dream Team" by any measure, but this Olympic squad has made it to the semifinals, where anything can happen in two games. The team is in the semifinals, though.
4. Women's water polo — The American women continue their dominance in this sport, looking to add a third-consecutive Olympic gold medal. The women play ROC in a semifinal match Thursday morning.
5. Baseball — The U.S. Baseball team needs a win against South Korea in the semifinal game on Thursday to advance to the gold medal game to face Japan. (Game will be at 6 a.m. ET on Thursday)
6. Women's volleyball — The Americans will play the semifinals on Friday against Serbia, with the winner advancing to the gold medal round to face the winner of Brazil and South Korea.
7. Women's 4x100-meter relay — The Americans have the second-fastest time in the world this year among the finalists, and great exchanges with fast splits could lead to gold over Great Britain, Germany and Jamaica.
8. Men's 400-meters — American Michael Norman has the fastest time this year (44.07 seconds) among the finalists in this race, yet he's still seeded behind Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas.
9. Women's high jump — Only one other finalist has cleared a higher mark this year than Vashti Cunningham of the U.S., who jumped 2.02 meters, which is her career best.
10. Men's 4x400 relay — The Americans are the only men's team among the finalists that has come close to breaking the 3-minute mark this year, as they ran a 3:00.75 in Gainesville during April.

Correction: A previous version of this story indicated Bahamian Steven Gardiner was from Bahrain, which was incorrect.