times until the Soviets came out on top. The Americans did not accept the silver medals, believing that they were robbed. This was the first US loss in Olympic basketball history and it ended the Americans' 63-game winning streak in Olympic basketball. In general, the US team greatly underperformed at these games, winning only 6 gold medals in track and field to the East Germans' 8 and Soviets' 9, though the Americans still won the most total medals, 22. In boxing, the Cubans and Soviets dominated, winning three and two championships, respectively, while the US won only one gold and four medals overall (compared to the Soviets' two and Cubans' five). In diving, the Americans won three medals; in soccer, the USSR and GDR fixed a bronze medal game, playing a tie, so both teams received bronze; in gymnastics, the Soviets edged their old rivals Japan to top the medal count; in weightlifting, the Soviets and Bulgarians won three golds each; in wrestling, the US team surprised with three golds in freestyle, yet the Soviets still dwarfed their medal tally with nine golds in freestyle and Greco-Roman (14–6 in total medals). In water polo, the Americans struck bronze, tying the eventual gold medalists the Soviet Union in the final round. Swimming was the only sport where the American team did not disappoint, winning 17 gold and 43 total medals, a good result, but still less than four years earlier. American women dominated swimming for the last time until 1992, as by 1976 they would be overtaken by East German dopers. The Eastern Bloc utterly dominated the 1976 Montreal Olympics, with seven communist countries placing in the top ten of the medal table. The United States team was relegated to a third place in the medal standings for the first time in its history, courtesy of Soviet and East German doping systems and their use of professional athletes. This was the Olympics of contrasts: the US men's swimming team, despite a generally dismal showing of the delegation, obliterated their sport, sweeping 12 gold and 27 total medals in the 13 events that were on the program and shattering 11 world records in the process (this was arguably the most dominant performance of any swimming team in history), while the US women's swimming team, on the other hand, fell victim to the unbeatable East German dopers. They still managed to win a