Olympics

Star Spangled Medal Winners

Team USA got off to a pretty strong start in the 20th Winter Olympics, winning six medals through the first weekend of competition, but it has been a while since America topped the daily medal count, until today. The US placed in three of the four events that awarded medals, pushing the country’s count to 23 through 14 days of the games.

In women’s giant slalom, tiara-wearing Julia Mancuso won her first ever gold medal and the second for the US in alpine skiing. It was a disappointing Olympics for the American ski team, but when your success in winning medals rests largely on a guy who claims he doesn’t ski to win medals, I think you’re asking to be disappointed.

One group of Americans who did not disappoint was the US men’s curling team, who claimed the first US medal in the sport. As announcer Don Chevrier put it, “The pizza man has delivered.” The Canadian team also claimed that country’s first gold in men’s Olympic curling after devastating Finland with a six-ender on their way to a 10-4 victory in nine ends.

Finally, speed skater Chad Hedrick won his third medal at these games, a silver in the men’s 10,000 meters, which he adds to the gold and bronze he earned in earlier events. After famously crossing over from inline skating to speed skating, he came into these games riding the expectation that he would medal in five events and possibly chase Eric Heiden’s untouchable record of five gold medals. Now, its hard to say that a three-time medalist has come up short and it seems unfair to hold an Olympic athlete accountable to media-fed expectations, however, Hedrick never downplayed those expectations and even played off them during his ongoing cat fight with Shani Davis. So Chad, congratulations on your achievement but please try and be less of a dick in Vancouver in 2010.

In the medal count, Germany continues to lead the way with 24, followed closely by the US with 23. Canada and Russia are tied for third place with 20 apiece, while Austria hangs in at fifth with a total of 19.

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