China won its fifth consecutive men’s Olympic team title, while Ma added a sixth gold to his impressive collection.

An earlier victory in the women’s canoe double 500m by Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya meant that after the table tennis draw, China had 32 gold medals to the USA’s 30. More American athletics success was expected throughout the night, but China created a platform to top the Olympic medal table away from home for the first time.

Chen said it was “really good … amazing” to be above the United States in the medal table but acknowledged there were “still two more days”.

The public conflict between China and the United States over the situation of 23 Chinese swimmers who failed doping tests ahead of the Tokyo Olympics has added a new dimension to the summit race.

This week, Chinese anti-doping authorities hit back at U.S. criticism for allowing American 200-meter runner Erriyon Knighton to compete in France despite testing positive for anabolic steroids in March.

With more victories expected over the weekend, China is certainly expected to boost its pre-Games prospects. The 405-athlete field is expected to take home 34 golds, according to Nielsen’s Gracenote estimate.

The 592-man U.S. squad was expected to win one more medal than China, with 39 gold medals in Tokyo.

Chen’s dominance in diving meant he had to avoid disaster on his final two attempts to win, but instead he executed two perfect dives to finish with a score of 376. The margin of victory was 32.90 points over Keeney, who scored 343.10.

“I was under a lot of pressure but I acted like it wasn’t,” Chen said. “Compared to my training, I could have done a little better but it’s nice to do it at the Olympic Games.

“I was relieved. It’s not easy to win. I thought I would cry after the last dive, but when I got into the water after the last dive, I was calm.”

Teammate Chang Yani took the bronze medal with 318.75 points despite an unimpressive final performance.

“I made a mistake on the first dive – it was a problem with my technique,” Chang said. “After that mistake, I knew I had to perform better and do my best in the other rounds. I did that.”

On Saturday, Cao Yuan and Yang Hao will be charged with trying to take the 10m platform gold and clinch China’s first ever Olympic diving title.

Having beaten Sweden in the men’s event, the women’s team can complete an equally dominant campaign in table tennis competition by beating Japan on Saturday.

Xu and Sun advanced ahead of boats from Ukraine and Canada to defend the canoeing title they won in Tokyo three years ago.

“We knew that if the gold medal wasn’t ours, (our preparation) meant nothing,” Sun said. “We did our best to get this medal… (and) we were really determined to win these Games. From (Tokyo 2020) to today and from the start line to the finish line, we just tried to be our best.”

There is promise of more Chinese victories to come. World record holder and reigning world champion Liu Huanhua will compete in the men’s 102kg weightlifting on Saturday. Later in the day, Li Qian will attempt to take her Tokyo silver to gold against Panama’s Atheyna Bylon in the women’s 57kg boxing final.

There were two more gold medal chances in boxing on the night, with Wu Yu and Yang Liu making their gold appearances after China stunned world number one the Netherlands in the women’s hockey final.

But the Americans have the all-around power to continue to strike gold. The U.S. men’s and women’s basketball teams in Paris will, barring something miraculous, have their Olympic titles under lock and key, while the U.S. will win the women’s soccer final against Brazil.

The United States achieved even greater success on Saturday, taking the top spot on the Stade de France podium.

Not only do the U.S. have a numerical advantage in the gold race, but history is on their side. The Americans have claimed medal-table honors at every Games since Beijing in 2008, when China collected 48 golds.

They will fall short of this big number in Paris, but this Chinese team is trying to do their best in the fight that will last until the last moment.