Ending with the Closing Ceremony this past Sunday night, the Sochi Olympic Winter Games came with many high expectations from the USA team, resulting in both happy and upsetting surprises. Coming in second in the overall medal count, just behind the host country Russia, the USA team earned the majority of their medals in bronze. Some see this year as a success due to the amount of medals won, yet some see it as a disappointment because of the lack of gold medals, creating a lower standard for the usually successful USA. America had the largest team with 230 members and therefore had many high expectations from its citizens along with the rest of the world.
With nine Gold, seven Silver, and twelve Bronze medals, America showed its talent in an array of specialties. USA was well represented in the Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding, with three Gold medals each. David Wise and Maddie Bowman, both American Freestyle Skiers, won the first ever Gold medals for the newly formed event, the Ski Halfpipe. Although three US snowboarders won Gold, the famous Shaun White fell short in his snowboarding event, the Men’s Halfpipe, destroying his chance of a third Gold medal in a row in the same event. Another huge success came from Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won Gold in the Ice Dancing event, beating their rivals and defending champions from Canada. Ice Hockey from both the men and women brought out very intense games and very devastating losses. The USA women’s team lost in the final game to Canada, earning Silver medal in overtime. Canada also won Gold for the men after beating the United States men’s team as well in overtime for the semi-final game.
America didn’t receive as many medals as wished, but they did make great memories and amazing events to watch. Many past medal winners failed in personal expectations, but that gave a chance to unknown newcomers to achieve success and have the time of their lives.