If Maryland Were A Country, It Would Have The 2nd Most Gold Medals
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- With the likes of Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and other Olympians hailing from the Baltimore and D.C. metro areas, and still more Olympians having trained locally, if the state of Maryland were a country competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics, it would hold the second most gold medals.
According to our media partners at The Baltimore Sun, the tiny "country" of Maryland would be trailing only China in gold medal count if medals won by local athletes were subtracted from the medal count for the U.S. as a whole.
Of course, that's counting individual event medals from Phelps (200m butterfly) and Ledecky (200m freestyle & 400m freestyle), plus their medals from winning relay teams (men's 4x200m freestyle relay & 4x100m freestyle for Phelps, women's 4x200m freestyle relay for Ledecky), and the relay medals for three other athletes with local ties -- Jack Conger (men's 4x200m freestyle relay) , Cierra Runge (women's 4x200m freestyle relay) and Allison Schmitt (women's 4x200m freestyle relay).
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According to The Sun, Conger grew up in Rockville, and Runge and Schmitt both trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.
Team USA is currently topping the charts in the medal counts, with 11 gold and 32 total.
Maryland-centric clothing company Route One Apparel is already capitalizing on the state's success in Rio with a new shirt. "Crab cakes and gold medals, that's what Maryland does."