A history of U.S. Olympic men's soccer: A timeline of the last time the U.S. men's national team won a medal and advanced to the knockout stages

The U.S. men's soccer team, led by coach Marko Mitrovic, achieved a monumental feat at the 2024 Olympics in France.

The U.S. beat Guinea 3-0 on Tuesday to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, something the U.S. has rarely accomplished in the history of the famed tournament.

While the U.S. women's soccer team has been a dominant force at the Olympics, the men's team has not had a notable performance at this tournament.

Sporting News takes a look at what the U.S. has accomplished in men's soccer at the Olympics and how this year's performance has been one of the best.

Read more: Full schedule, results and standings for men's and women's football at the 2024 Olympics in France

When was the last time the U.S. men's soccer team reached the Olympic finals?

The U.S. men's team defeated New Zealand and Guinea to advance to the knockout stage of the 2024 Olympics as second in Group A behind host nation France. This marks just the second time in history that the U.S. has advanced past the group stage of an Olympic tournament, making it a monumental achievement.

Prior to Paris, the last time the U.S. men's team reached the knockout stage of Olympic soccer was in Sydney in 2000, where they finished in fourth place.

In that tournament, the United States beat Kuwait and drew with the Czech Republic and Cameroon to finish atop Group C with five points. They beat Japan on penalties in the quarterfinals, but lost 3-1 to Spain in the semifinals and 2-0 to Chile in the bronze medal game.

Prior to that, the U.S. men's team had never made it past the group stage since the two-stage format was introduced in 1960.

Did U.S. Men's Soccer win an Olympic medal?

Technically, the U.S. men have won a medal in Olympic soccer, but it comes with big conditions.

The only Olympic medals in U.S. men's soccer history both date back to 1904, when there was no national team competition. Instead, the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis featured a round-robin tournament featuring three club teams.

One Canadian club participated and two U.S. clubs participated, both in St. Louis. Canadian club Galt FC won the gold medal, beating the other two teams by scores of 7-0 and 4-0. Christian Brothers College won the silver medal, and St. Rose Parish won the bronze medal with a 2-0 head-to-head victory.

As both clubs were based in the United States, these two medals are recorded as part of U.S. Soccer's Olympic history.

Four years later, the 1908 London Olympics saw the first truly international football tournament, with teams from different countries competing. The host nation won the gold medal, with Denmark coming in second and the Netherlands taking the bronze medal. The United States did not take part.

The U.S. men's team first played in the modern, truly international Olympic soccer tournament in 1924 and has competed in 13 tournaments since. In that time, the U.S. team has never won a medal, the closest they've ever come was a fourth-place finish in 2000. They've only made it to the quarterfinals once, in 1956, in a tournament that featured just 16 teams, so the U.S. began its competition in the quarterfinals.

U.S. Men's Soccer Olympic Records and History

Since winning two medals in 1904, the U.S. men have rarely come close to making the Olympic podium, except for a close call in 2000.

Below is the complete history of the U.S. men's team at the Olympics.

It is worth noting that the Olympics started out as a pure single-elimination tournament with a standard knockout format. In 1960, this format changed to the current two-stage format with a group round and a knockout round. It then moved to a youth tournament in 1992, where it has remained ever since.

* Three clubs participated in the tournament, two of which were from the United States.