The Sochi games start in 5 days and although I do not know winter sports as well as in the summer games. I'm going to try and make a prediction in the USA medal count.
The USA has a 230 member Olympic team that I believe is the second largest contingent of any country going to Sochi. That is a big reason why the USA can do very well at these games. Also supporting that is more events than the 2010 Vancouver games. There are 98 total events at the Sochi games and the USA has competitors in 94 out of the 98 events.
I do feel however, that without Lindsey Vonn and Evan Lysacek, Apolo Anton Ohno(retired) and the location of the country hosting the games, Russia(not friendly to us) the USA may not do as well in total gold medals won..I believe performance by USA athletes in countries not friendly to us affect the total gold medals won. In 2008 in Beijing the USA had more total medals than China 110 to 100 but lost the gold medal count 51 to 38. In 2012 in London, UK(our strongest ally) the USA won the total medal count over China 104 to 87 and in the gold medal count 46 to 38.
Ever since 2002 the USA winter Olympic team has been winning 30 medals or more each games.
As the number of athletes and events in winter games increases the number of medal events increases as well. The USA won 37 total medals at the 2010 Vancouver games. The USA won 9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze. The USA was first, followed by Germany with 30 total medals, Canada was third with 26, Norway was fourth with 23 and Austria was fifth with 16.
Before I make a prediction in the USA total medal count I am going to talk a bit about our 230 member USA Olympic team.
The complete roster and roster facts is courtesy of teamusa.org.
2014 U.S. Olympic Team:
Alpine Skiing
David Chodounsky
Stacey Cook
Erik Fisher
Julia Ford
Travis Ganong
Jared Goldberg
Tim Jitloff
Nolan Kasper
Ted Ligety
Julia Mancuso
Megan McJames
Bode Miller
Steven Nyman
Laurenne Ross
Mikaela Shiffrin
Leanne Smith
Resi Stiegler
Marco Sullivan
Andrew Weibrecht
Jacqueline Wiles
Biathlon
Lowell Bailey
Lanny Barnes
Tim Burke
Annelies Cook
Russell Currier
Sean Doherty
Hannah Dreissigacker
Susan Dunklee
Leif Nordgren
Sara Studebaker
Bobsled
Cory Butner
Nick Cunningham
Aja Evans
Jazmine Fenlator
Chris Fogt
Jamie Greubel
Steven Holcomb
Lolo Jones
Steve Langton
Elana Meyers
Justin Olsen
Johnny Quinn
Dallas Robinson
Curt Tomasevicz
Lauryn Williams
Cross-Country Skiing
Erik Bjornsen
Sadie Bjornsen
Holly Brooks
Sophie Caldwell
Jessie Diggins
Brian Gregg
Kris Freeman
Simi Hamilton
Noah Hoffman
Torin Koos
Andy Newell
Kikkan Randall
Ida Sargent
Liz Stephen
Curling
Erika Brown
Debbie McCormick
Jessica Schultz
Ann Swisshelm
Allison Pottinger John Shuster
Jeff Isaacson
Jared Zezel
John Landsteiner
Craig Brown
Figure Skating
Jeremy Abbott
Jason Brown
Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir
Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Meryl Davis & Charlie White
Polina Edmunds
Gracie Gold
Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani
Ashley Wagner
Felicia Zhang & Nathan Bartholomay
Freeskiing
Aaron Blunck
Maddie Bowman
Bobby Brown
Joss Christensen
Lyman Currier
Annalisa Drew
Nick Goepper
Keri Herman
Gus Kenworthy
Julia Krass
Devin Logan
Brita Sigourney
John Teller
Angeli Vanlaanen
Maggie Voisin
David Wise
Torin Yater-Wallace
Freestyle Skiing
Mac Bohonnon
Ashley Caldwell
Emily Cook
Patrick Deneen
Hannah Kearney
Heidi Kloser
Heather McPhie
Eliza Outtrim
Bradley Wilson
Ice Hockey
Kacey Bellamy
Megan Bozek
Alex Carpenter
Kendall Coyne
Julie Chu
Brianna Decker
Meghan Duggan
Lyndsey Fry
Amanda Kessel
Hilary Knight
Jocelyne Lamoureux
Monique Lamoureux
Gigi Marvin
Brianne McLaughlin
Michelle Picard
Josephine Pucci
Molly Schaus
Anne Schleper
Kelli Stack
Lee Stecklein
Jessie Vetter
David Backes
Dustin Brown
Ryan Callahan
John Carlson
Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler
Jimmy Howard
Patrick Kane
Ryan Kesler
Phil Kessel
Paul Martin
Ryan McDonagh
Ryan Miller
Brooks Orpik
T.J. Oshie
Max Pacioretty
Zach Parise
Joe Pavelski
Jonathan Quick
James van Riemsdyk
Kevin Shattenkirk
Paul Stastny
Derek Stepan
Ryan Suter
Blake Wheeler
Luge
Summer Britcher
Preston Griffall
Erin Hamlin
Kate Hansen
Aidan Kelly
Chris Mazdzer
Matt Mortensen
Christian Niccum
Jayson Terdiman
Tucker West
Nordic Combined
Billy Demong
Bryan Fletcher
Taylor Fletcher
Todd Lodwick
Skeleton
Matt Antoine
John Daly
Noelle Pikus-Pace
Kyle Tress
Katie Uhlaender
Ski Jumping
Nick Alexander
Nick Fairall
Peter Frenette
Sarah Hendrickson
Jessica Jerome
Anders Johnson
Lindsey Van
Snowboarding
Jamie Anderson
Nick Baumgartner
Greg Bretz
Kelly Clark
Danny Davis
Alex Deibold
Kaitlyn Farrington
Arielle Gold
Taylor Gold
Chas Guldemond
Faye Gulini
Jackie Hernandez
Nate Holland
Trevor Jacob
Lindsey Jacobellis
Jessika Jensen
Sage Kotsenburg
Justin Reiter
Karly Shorr
Ryan Stassel
Hannah Teter
Ty Walker
Shaun White
Speedskating (Long Track)
Brittany Bowe
Lauren Cholewinski
Shani Davis
Tucker Fredricks
Jonathan Garcia
Kelly Gunther
Brian Hansen
Jonathan Kuck
Maria Lamb
Emery Lehman
Joey Mantia
Patrick Meek
Heather Richardson
Anna Ringsred
Jilleanne Rookard
Sugar Todd
Mitchell Whitmore
Speedskating (Short Track)
Eddy Alvarez
Kyle Carr
J.R. Celski
Chris Creveling
Alyson Dudek
Jordan Malone
Emily Scott
Jessica Smith
Team USA has 106 returning Olympians. The USA returns 99 Olympians from the 2010 Vancouver games. Out of the 99 returning Olympians from 2010 49 are Olympic medalists from previous games and 13 are Olympic champions.
There are 105 women and 125 men on the US Team.
Nordic Combined skier Todd Lodwick is competing in his sixth Olympics, another Nordic Combined skier Billy Demong is competing in his fifth Olympics and Alpine skier Bode Miller is competing in his fifth Olympics.
My predictions for the USA medal count:
The USA will win 12 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze for a total of 38 and finish first. Germany, Russia, Canada and Norway will round out the top 5 in that order.
5 more days until the opening ceremony!
No comments:
Post a Comment