France off to its best start in the Olympics in 100 years

While France (26) trailed Team USA (30) in the total medal count on Day 6 of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the host nation achieved an incredible piece of history with its rollicking start to the Games.

By bagging 26 medals within the first six days (eight gold, 10 silver and eight bronze), France made its greatest start to a Summer Olympics since the 1924 Games. The country's previous best saw it needing eight days to reach the milestone at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and the 2000 Games in Sydney.

On Wednesday, France grabbed eight medals — three gold, one silver and four bronze — to make the biggest one-day jump among all the top-ranked countries in the Games. In comparison, China finished the day with five medals, Team USA with four, Australia with five and Japan with two.

France's final gold came when Leon Marchand won the men's 200m breaststroke final with a record time of 2:05.85, just two hours after winning his second gold. With three gold medals within four days, Marchand became the first French swimmer to achieve the hat trick in the nation's history.

Elsewhere, the host nation won bronze in the men's saber event and Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou captured bronze in the 90kg judo event.

If the host nation can carry forward its momentum, it could surpass China at the top of the leaderboard for gold medals by the end of Thursday. As of this writing, France trailed China by just one gold.

With 26 medals already, France is just four podium finishes shy of surpassing its medal count (30) from the 2020 Games in Tokyo. And we're just getting started in these Games...