Under such circumstances, Chinese swimmers showed their resilience with a collection of two gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.

Although the US topped the swimming total with eight gold medals, the results were under par for the country since the 1992 Olympics.

The Americans had trailed Australia until the last day of swimming Sunday, when they secured two more gold medals in the men's 1500m freestyle and women's 4x100m medley relay, improving on world records in both events.

Bobby Finke of the US set a world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle, finishing in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds to break the record of 14:31.02 set by Sun Yang of China at the 2012 London Games.

Legendary US swimmer Katie Ledecky last week won both the women's 800m and 1500m freestyle, raising her Olympic gold medal total to nine. She has won the 800m freestyle four times in a row, a feat achieved only by the US' Michael Phelps from 2004 to 2016.

Agencies contributed to this story.