Team USA finishes with 23 medals after 2018 Winter Olympics wrap up in PyeongChang
By: Wyatt Pfeifer
After the closing ceremonies on Sunday, the United States found themselves in fourth place with nine gold medals, eight silver, and six bronze. It was not quite the Olympic showing that Team USA was hoping for, but there were lots of highlights and key points that really made fans and athletes proud of our country.
One of the later events that really brought the country’s spirit up was the Women’s Hockey gold medal victory over Canada, which came in a shootout victory. The game was intense and was helped by twin sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando. Monique tied the game before the end of regulation, and Jocelyne would end up having the game-winning shot in penalty shots. It was an event for the ages as Canada had won all but one of the past gold medals of women’s hockey, with their only loss coming to the ladies of Team USA in 1998.
Another huge event was the Team USA Men’s Curling competition. Team USA achieved the improbable in knocking off the Canadian team in the semifinals and then winning the gold medal match against Sweden. What an incredible feat it was! No one had the U.S. picked to win against Canada in another sport that is one of Canada’s specialties. The Curling gold medal match began at around 12:30 a.m., and with the score tied at five with Sweden, it came down to Team USA’s throw in the end eighth, where Team USA knocked out the two stones for Sweden and doubled USA’s score to ten, which would end up being the game-defining throw.
Along with these, other gold medal winners include Red Gerard, Shaun White, Chloe Kim, Mikaela Shiffrin, David Wise, Jamie Anderson and the women’s sprint free team. It was a decent showing from them, but one of the athletes that will be going home with a feeling that she could have done better would have to be skier Lindsey Vonn. She ended up winning a bronze medal in women’s downhill, in which she was a favorite to show up and win. Her father was not too pleased with her performance in the Winter Olympics, as he was openly quoted saying he was not happy with a bronze.
Another one of the athletes who won gold but was still not as happy with her results was Mikaela Shiffrin. The 22-year-old from Colorado was a heavy favorite to win all four of her events, but after her gold she only won one other silver medal.
As the Olympics are now over and all the medals have been won, it is finally time for everyone to return to his or her home countries. It is always a wonderful event and a great time for the whole world to come together and compete. It tends to ease the mind and let people escape to a place where the world isn’t as bad. Sports have a way of letting people forget about life for a while.
