The cauldron will be lit Friday during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. And when it is extinguished, the United States is expected to stand tall above the rest of the world, according to the medal projections from Nielson's Gracenote.
The USA is projected to win 123 total medals including 39 gold medals. China is expected to win 89 medals, but challenge the U.S. with 35 gold. Great Britain is marked for 66 total medals, 13 gold. And host-nation France is tapped for 55 total medals, 28 gold.
If the Americans are able to deliver on the projection, it would mark the country's eighth consecutive top spot in the Summer Games medal table. A total of 123 medals would be the most for the United States since the boycott-impacted 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
The U.S. totaled 113 medals in Tokyo, 39 of which were gold. Track and field and swimming hold the key for the Americans as those events are expected to account for just under half of their total medals.
China's success will hinge on its key events in diving, shooting, weightlifting, table tennis, badminton, swimming and artistic gymnastics.
France is projected to nearly triple its gold medal count from Tokyo for what would be its best Olympic Games since 1900, which also took place in Paris.
Australia (50 total medals, 13 gold medals), Japan (49/13), Italy (47/12), Netherlands (38/18), Germany (36/9) and South Korea (24/9) round out the Top 10 projections.
Outside the Top 10, the model follows with Canada (22/6), Spain (20/5), Hungary (19/5), Brazil (18/9), Turkiye (13/4), Ethiopia (13/3), Uzbekistan (13/3), Ukraine (13/3), Georgia (12/3), Denmark (11/5), Poland (11/4), New Zealand (11/4), Belgium (11/3), Serbia (10/5), Romania (10/2), Kazakhstan (10/2), Sweden (9/5), Iran (9/4), Jamaica (9/3) and Kenya (9/3).
Nielson's Gracenote Olympics medal table projection takes into account all available results data from key global and continental competitions since the Tokyo Olympics took place in 2021.