The majority of Team USA medals awarded so far during this summer's Olympic Games have gone to women.

• Medal count as of this morning:🏅50 total medals, ♀️ 29 women, ♂️ 19 men. (Women have captured 8 of the 11 gold medals for Team USA so far.)

Zoom in: Women have medaled across a number of outdoor events, including cycling, shooting and rugby, but the biggest wins so far have been indoors.

• 🤸‍♀️ Gymnastics: The U.S. women's gymnastics team vaulted to an early lead in the team competition Tuesday and never looked back, easily outpacing Italy and Brazil to capture the gold medal in Paris last week. Simone Biles took home the gold medal in the women's all-around competition Friday, while Sunisa Lee took home the bronze. Biles also took home the gold in vault today.
• 🏊‍♀️ Swimming: Katie Ledecky won the women's 1500m freestyle gold last week, besting her own Olympic record. Kate Douglass and Torri Huske also took home gold medals for Team USA Swimming. Women have captured 14 of Team USA's 21 swimming medals.
• 🤺 Fencing: Lee Kiefer took home the gold for individual foil fencing and helped lead her peers to team gold medal.

What to watch: We're only halfway through Paris 2024, and U.S. women are the clear favorite for many big events this week.

• 👟 Track: Sha'Carri Richardson, one of the fastest sprinters in the world, easily qualified for today's 100-meter semifinals.
• ⚽ Women's soccer: The U.S. Women's National Team competes against Japan today for the quarterfinals.
• 🏀 Women's basketball: The U.S. women's basketball team edged out Belgium last week to advance to the quarterfinals.

Paris 2024 marks the first Olympic Games to reach gender parity in terms of the number of athletes competing globally, but several controversies are muddying that milestone.

Why it matters: This year's Games appear more inclusive than ever on TV, but women are still fighting for certain rights behind the scenes.

🥊 Driving the news: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif weathered a storm of transphobic abuse on social media after her Italian opponent quit 46 seconds into their Thursday bout, dragging the Olympic Games into a bitter and misinformation-filled debate over transgender and intersex athletes, Axios' Ina Fried reports.

• French sprinter Sounkamba Sylla was told by the French government that she couldn't participate in the Opening Ceremony last week if she wore a hijab. She and the government eventually compromised, and Sounkamba wore a navy blue baseball cap to ride down the Seine River with the French team.
• Elite athletes globally still earn less than men. In the U.S., President Biden signed a federal law last year to ensure Team USA women get the same pay and benefits as men in the same sport.

By the numbers: 28 of the 32 sports on the Paris 2024 program are fully gender-balanced, Analis Bailey reports.

• There are 152 medal events for women, 157 events for men and 20 mixed-gender events.

Yes, but: While parity exists among able athletes, the Paralympics hasn't yet reached that milestone.

• Women in the Paralympics made up just over 40% in the Tokyo Games, per research from the Sociology of Sport Journal.

The women's sports industry is racing to take advantage of the massive momentum behind women's basketball while ratings and buzz boom.

• "You have to strike when the iron is hot, and women's basketball … we're hot," Dawn Staley, head coach of the 2024 NCAA championship-winning South Carolina Gamecocks, said at an Axios and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment event in Paris Thursday.

Zoom in: Staley, who has won three gold medals, said storytelling plays a huge role in lifting the sector.

• "We have people's attention now. They want to know, where do these players come from? How did they get so good? And we have to tell their stories."
• "You have to really be intentional in everything that we do. Every single time that we get a chance to talk about our sport, to represent our sport ... let's spread it. Let's keep spreading the word about our great game."

The big picture: The rise of social media has empowered athletes to use their platforms to tell their stories, but women athletes have become especially attuned to the power of great storytelling.

• 🧠 Simone Biles' mental health battle may have sidelined her in the Tokyo Games, but her focus on those issues publicly helped draw outsized attention to her victories this time around.
• 🧠 Sha'Carri Richardson makes her Olympics debut this summer after being dropped from the Tokyo Games for testing positive for THC. Her suspension sparked a huge debate around drug regulations for athletes. She's been vocal about the situation's impact on her mental health.
• 👶 Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart have both been vocal about their experiences competing on behalf of Team USA women's basketball as new moms this year.

A focus on women's sports has forced Olympic sports franchises and leadership to double down on maternity benefits for athletes.

U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland told Axios on stage Thursday that efforts to support mothers with maternity leave have helped athletes overcome financial and mental health barriers that would have otherwise kept them from competing.

• The USOPC provides athletes with stipends and insurance for one year after giving birth. It recently launched a Team USA New Family Fund grant for new parents for things like postnatal recovery care, infant supplies and child care.
• U.S. Track and Field expanded its maternity benefits in April following pressure from athletes.

What to watch: This year's Olympic Games featured more dedicated spaces for women athletes and their families than ever before.

👩‍🍼 Allyson Felix, the most decorated track and field athlete of all time, brought the first-ever nursery to the Olympic Village this year.

• 🍼 The dedicated space is equipped with changing tables, breastfeeding stations, diapers and more, Felix told Axios on stage last week in Paris.
• 👶🏽 The nursery allows women athletes and their families to manage parental duties with the demands of a hectic Olympic schedule.
• 🙏 Last night, my colleague Ina Fried and I visited the first-ever Olympic Equality Lounge, a dedicated space for women athletes and their families, hosted by The Female Quotient and Athleta.

Women athletes are not just the backbone of U.S. Olympic success this year, but they have become one of the country's most valuable diplomatic assets.

Why it matters: "Our American athletes are global ambassadors," said U.S. assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs Lee Satterfield, who's informally known as U.S. "sports minister."

• Women athletes "are showing the world the best of the best of America. ... People are glued to their stories," she added.

Zoom in: The State Department — in partnership with ESPNW — has sent over 200 women American athletes and sports leaders to mentor women globally over the past decade as part of its efforts to export American values.

• Satterfield said world leaders are looking to the U.S. to understand how investing in women's sports can impact their economic goals.
• "There's interest in what we've done in the United States, particularly around Title IX," Satterfield said, referring to the other global sports ministers she's met with in Paris.

With Team USA's 4x200m freestyle relay win last week, swimmer Katie Ledecky became the most decorated woman athlete in U.S. Olympic history.

• The 27-year-old Maryland native now has 13 Olympic medals. She is tied for the second-most medals of any U.S. Olympian, man or woman.

The record to beat: Ledecky's fellow Maryland swim sensation Michael Phelps still holds the record for the most medals for any U.S. Olympian, with 28.