I do a review of the games 10 days in because its a bit more than half way through the games. The USA has only won 10 medals(5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze) through 10 days. That's very disappointing. There has been several USA medal misses, Lindsey Vonn in women's Skiing Super G, Mikaela Shiffrin in women's Skiing Slalom, Gus Kenworthy in men's ski Slopestyle and Lindsey Jacobellis in Snowboard Cross to name a few.
The biggest disappointment/elation so far has to be USA men's skater Nathan Chen who fell twice on quads in his short program while finishing 17th in the short program to being the best skater in the free skate, landing 5 of 6 quads. Chen finished 5th overall. Nathan Chen was a gold medal favorite.
Speed Skating is another disappointment for the USA, only winning one medal, John-Henry Krueger winning silver in men's 1000M Short Track Speed Skating. The Netherlands, Korea and Japan have dominated Speed Skating so far in these games.
The USA has not done well in Biathlon, Skeleton and men's Curling The USA is struggling through the first 2 runs of men's 2 man Bobsled with teams in 12th, 24th and 25th place.
Bright spots so far for the USA in these games are Shaun White winning gold in men's Halfpipe, Jamie Anderson winning gold in snow blown conditions in the women's Snowboard Slopestyle, Chloe Kim winning gold in women's Snowboard Halfpipe, Mikaela Shiffrin winning gold in women's skiing Giant Slalom and Red Gerard winning gold in men's Snowboard Slopestyle.
Surprising medals for the USA include Chris Mazdzer winning silver in men's singles Luge and Arielle gold winning bronze in women's Halfpipe.
The USA winning bronze in the figure skating team competition was nice to watch including Nathan Chen who has a bronze from the team event. Look for the Canadian Ice Dance team of Virtue/Moir to be heavy favorites for gold. Can the USA Ice Dance teams medal? Stay Tuned!
The USA has chances for medals in figure skating Ice Dance, figure skating women's program, women's Big Air and women's ski Halfpipe.
A few skating personalities have amazed me. The cult like following of NBC Figure Skating analysts, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. I love the Instagram shopping photos and great wardrobe displays. Adam Rippon has shined as a skater and great conversationalist/interview. Adam Rippon is well spoken!
Norway and Germany have dominated the winter games so far, winning 26 and 18 total medals each respectively but the USA has plenty of chances to win medals in the last 7 days of the games.
My predictions for the USA medal count of 10 gold, 13 silver and 11 bronze- total of 34 won't happen. The USA will win between 18 and 20 total medals and 8 or 9 gold. The USA is behind the Olympic Athletes from Russia(OAR) who have 11 medals(no gold). France, Austria and Japan have as many total medals as the USA(10) through the first 10 days of the games.
NBC has done a decent job broadcasting the games since the opening ceremony. The only exception is that viewers complained that the figure skating competition should have been broadcast on NBC and not the NBCSN. Several viewers were looking for the team figure skating competition on NBC only to see skiing instead.
I love the term "drop in" to describe Snowboard/Ski athletes beginning competition in their events.That term is new to me.
Looking forward to watching the last 7 days of the games! Hopefully the USA will win lots of medals!
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