MMR: Olympic Recap

The Winter Olympic games have come to a close. The Winter Olympics are my favorite Olympics (as I've said before), and I am sad to see them end.



I'm still pretty heartbroken over the US not quite winning Gold in Hockey. But, some perspective, they weren't even supposed to be in the Gold Medal Game. And they tied it up with 24 seconds left, and made a game of it. Silver is good, I just really was hoping the US would score in OT and break the heart of every Canadian.

Guess it wasn't to be.

Gold or Silver, this was an amazing Olympics for the United States. The US ended up atop the medal count, winning a Winter Olympics record 37 medals. They also finished atop the medal count in a Winter Olympics for just the second time in history (and the first time since 1932...when they won 12 medals to lead all countries). Needless to say, this was a historic tournament for the Americans.

The final medal count:



A few sports really came through for the US to be able to make this unprecidented medal haul.

First, the US Alpine Skiing team won 8 medals...their most ever. Led by Bode Miller's 3 medals, Julia Mancuso and LIndsay Vonn tacked on two a piece, and Andrew Weibrecht added in one of his own. Just amazing.



Then there was the US Nordic Combined Team. I talked about them here, but to recap, they won the first 4 medals the US has ever won in the nordic combined. Also, Bill Demong's gold in the Individual Large Hill event was the first ever gold for the US in any nordic event! An awesome Olympics all around for these boys.



The hockey team got a medal when they weren't expected to.



The US 4-man bobsled team won gold for the first time in decades.



And you can't forget about Apollo Anton Ohno, who got three medals, to become the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time. The old record was 6, so his 7th broke the record, and he finished with 8 (shouldda been 9, he got screwed by the Canadian judge in the 500). If this is it for his Olympic career, he's definately had an awesome one!



All in all, this was an amazing Olympics for the Americans. They won gold in new events, they unexpectedly dominated in others, and in the end, it was the best showing by any country ever in a Winter Olympics.

The Canadians said they were going to "own the podium" at these Olympics. Well, the US just came in and leased it for two weeks. An awesome job all around by the US Olympic Team.

WELL DONE, TEAM USA! THIS WAS TRULY AN OLYMPICS TO REMEMBER!



In the end, my favorite part of the Olympics, or at least the part I find to be the coolest, is how the procession of athletes for the closing ceremonies isn't broken down by country. They all enter together, as one. And isn't that what it's all about, or at least supposed to be about? The world coming together for two weeks, without worry of war or border disputes or politics, and competing against one another, cheering on one another, and displaying the purity of sports? Yes, the countries are competing against one another, but athletes from the same country are also competing against one another. Everyone is there to do their best, mingle with athletes from their country and other countries, and just have a good time.

Or, at least, I like to think that's the point. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy when America dominates. But in the end, every athlete who won a medal should be proud, and every athlete that didn't win a medal but at least made it to the Olympics should be proud. The Olympics are a stage for all sports, and for the best of the best of those sports, to put their best foot forward. Sometimes that gets lost in the medal count and country rivalries and such (hearing the political leaders in Russia talk about their athlete's "failures" this Olympics, you would think their athletes single handedly brought about the end of Russia!). But in the end, the Olympics are about the athletes giving it their best, and countries coming together to witness this.

And that's what the Olympic symbol is meant to be about, right? The countries and continents of the world coming together. From the Olympic Revue magazine in 1912, when the symbol was released: "The emblem chosen to illustrate and represent [the Olympics are] five intertwined rings in different colors - blue, yellow, black, green, and red - placed on the white field of the paper. These five rings represent the five parts of the world which now are won over to Olympism and willing to accept healthy competition. These five rings represent the five (inhabited) continents of the world: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania (including Australia)." And the closing ceremonies are the perferct embodiment of these ideals.



Now its back to normal life, where I'm a Sharks fan, and there's no international events to watch. There also won't be 3 hockey games a day to watch, which has been awesome.

I hope everyone who reads this blog enjoyed my Olympic coverage over the last two weeks. While I definately focused on Hockey, I tried to write about some of the less talked about US Olympians as well. And I threw in tons of pictures, which, of course, makes things fun.