By Kate Hawthorne, Staff Writer
The 2018 Winter Olympics of Pyeongchang are now complete, but the United States returns home fairly disappointed. The U.S. sent 242 Olympians to the Olympics but came fourth place overall, winning only 23 medals.
Norway, Germany, and Canada beat the United States, placing first, second, and third, respectively. However, the U.S. was far from achieving a place on the podium: Canada had six more medals than the United States. Norway, the overall champion, actually beat the previous record for most Winter Olympic medals by one medal, which had been held by the United States previously.
When the weighting of the medals is taken into consideration (gold medals receive three points per medal, silver two points, and bronze one), the United States was even further behind: 12 more points were needed to tie for third place, 33 to second, and 37 to first. In fact, this is the worst showing by the United States in the Winter Games in 20 years – the previous low was in 1998, where the U.S. only won 13 medals.
The majority of our medals came from Snowboarding – the United States won four gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal in the sport. Jamie Anderson won the silver for Women’s Big Air and Women’s slopestyle. The only other American athlete to bring home more than one medal was Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the silver in Women’s Alpine Combined and Women’s Giant Slalom (also in the Alpine Skiing category). However, the U.S. did win the gold in the Women’s Ice Hockey Finals, defeating Canada who won gold at the past four Winter Olympics. The U.S. Figure Skating Mixed Team and Mixed Ice Dance teams won bronze, in comparison.
The United States did not break any Olympic or World Records this year, either. Despite the U.S. dearth, other countries felled many records Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skating. World records were set by China’s Wu Dajing in the Men’s 500m Short Track Speed Skating and by the Netherlands team in the Ladies’ 3000m Short Track Speed Skating Relay.
In total, the United States won 9 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 6 bronze medals. This was certainly a lackluster year for the United States’ Winter Olympic career. However, the we will always have the surprising upset by the United States’ Men’s Curling Team over three-time champions Canada. The team, which won gold for the first time, has been described by those on the internet as “a bunch of dads”, a “ragtag squad” and a “team of rejects,” went on to defeat Sweden in the finals to win their first ever gold medal.
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