With the Winter Olympics being in Beijing, there were many teams that were anticipated to do good and get the medals. The U.S hasn’t always been consistent in the Winter Olympics like in the summer when they are always great. With all of the events that are happening, there is one that is the most anticipated for the U.S and that is the half pipe snowboarding competition with Shaun White  and his last year competing for the Olympics. Shaun  won gold medals in the 2006, 2010 and 2018 olympics along with many X-games gold medals in his long great career. FMHS sophomore Gavin Brittain, a  at  and a snowboarder himself, had this to say about this being Shaun White’s final olympics. “Ever since I started snowboarding I have looked up to him. He is my inspiration for the tricks I do and I try. It’s sad seeing him leave after a long successful career.” 

Unfortunately, this year he didn’t place on the podium with a close 4th finish in his final Olympics. 

European countries dominated the olympics this year with Norway having 37, Russia having 32 and Germany having 27. Canada had 26 medals and the U.S had 25, rounding out the top five countries.  The U.S received 8 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze medals. Some of  sports that received these gold medals are womens monobob, men’s single skating, men’s freeski slopestyle, mixed team aerials, womens snowboard cross, womens snowboard halfpipe, mixed team snowboard cross and women’s 500M in speed skating. The U.S has shined in the snowboarding aspect of the olympics this year but the other sports have been quite quiet. The U.S was anticipating more gold medals by the country itself and the fans but it was in the top five and won many silver medals. 

However, with that success there have been other issues the U.S team has faced. A doping scandal with Kamila Valieva. When she took the drug tests for the olympics she tested positive for a banned heart medication and suspended her but a few days later they lifted the ban however when it came to competition time she couldn’t seem to get a run together with numerous falls. She ended up placing fourth one step off of a medal spot. A heavy medal favorite Mikaela Shiffrin didn’t finish two of her runs and got disqualified in her final and a young figure skater Zhu Yi fell multiple times that caused her to not be able to compete for any medal this year. 

Overall, the U.S did well with medals this year but it definitely not the best that they could have done with all of the training that all of the sports have done and all the effort these athletes have put in themselves.