US Claims Gold at the Olympics

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Photo of Shaun White with his gold metal at the awards ceremony. Photo from @shaunwhite on Twitter.

By Madison Gillespie, Sports Editor

The Olympic games have  come to an end, and the US came fourth in the overall medal count with 23.

While the US may not have come in first place for the medal count, several historic and exciting moments happened.

Here are some of the top moments from the 2018 Olympic Games.

Womens Ice Hockey:

This is the first time in over twenty years that the American women’s hockey team have brought home the gold medal instead of Canada. The final game between the US and Canada ended in a shootout victory, resulting in the final score being 3-2. Out of the entire series of the games that were played, the US Women’s team only lost one game to Canada in the preliminary round with the score of 2-1. The other countries that the US played included Finland and Olympic Athletes From Russia. To read more about the Women’s Ice Hockey team click here.

 

Quote from Olympic hockey player Megan Keller on winning gold. Photo from @usahockey on Twitter.

Womens Cross Country Skiing:

This year a new medal was added to the US Olympic medal collection. The first ever Olympic gold medal was obtained in Women’s Cross Country Skiing by duo Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins. The end of the races were close with the top two competing being Diggins and a female athlete from Norway. The ending was so exciting that not only were fans screaming their excitement, but so were the commentators on the television. Diggins edged out the female athlete from Norway by 0.3 seconds, leading to the first women’s cross country medal in US history. Diggins was voted to be the one to carry in the US flag during the closing ceremony. To read more about this amazing accomplishment, click here.  

Mens Curling:

Another historic moment happened with the men’s curling team as well. The US received its first ever curling gold. In the past two Olympic games the curling team has come in last and second to last place. The team of five men from a small town in Minnesota and qualified for the Olympics. The team pulled out five straight victories, including two wins against Winter Olympic legends Canada. The men’s team returned home holding their heads high with gold medals hanging around their necks. They even made a stop in Annapolis on March 3 for the outdoor game between the NHL teams the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leaves, where they curled the puck to the center of the ice for the first face off. To read more about the Men’s Curling team, click here.  

Photo of the men’s curling team celebrating their victory. Photo from @zentrade_online on Twitter.

Womens Alpine Skiing:

Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin brought home a combined total of three medals home to the US in the Alpine Skiing events. Shiffrin brought home gold in the giant slalom event. She also won a combined sliver metal for the same course. Lindsey Vonn made history by becoming the oldest woman, at the age of 33, to bring home a medal in Alpine Skiing. Vonn won a bronze metal in the downhill event. To watch the runs of Vonn and Shiffrin, click here.

Snowboarding, Mens and Womens:

In all of this year’s Olympic Snowboarding events a total of seven medals. Earning four more than Canada won. Shaun White came back for his fourth olympics looking to win his third gold medal after a fourth place run in Sochi. In the halfpipe final White was able to pull off a move that was only achieved by the snowboarder, Ayumu Hirano, from Japan. White did the move not only once, but twice- back-to-back- making a historic run. To check out White’s run, click here.

On the women’s halfpipe event Chloe Kim also pulled off an amazing run bring home gold for the women’s team. She became the youngest woman to medal in the halfpipe event at the Olympics at only being seventeen. To read more on Chloe Kim, click here. 

Photo of Shaun White with his gold metal at the awards ceremony. Photo from @shaunwhite on Twitter.