On top of that, any normalizing has to work around exceptions like the Dutch. So, until we can normalize by population "with access to winter facilities and mountains", it's not worth it. (How, for example, would English snowboarders expect to compete with the rest of the world? Where would they practice?) Those aren't fair in the Winter Olympics anyway: not every country can even train for a Winter Olympics. I could bore you with a predictable performance per population ratio or another discussion about the relative worth of medals. Honorable mentions go to Charlie White and Meryl Davis, Sevn Kramer ( this Sven Kramer), and a ton of respect to Yevgeny Plushenko at an ""ancient"" (by figure skating standards) 31 years old. Ironically, it came on the short track (Men's 1000m, Sjinkie Knegt, bronze).Ī nod goes to Ole Einar Bjørndalen, the "King of Biathlon" and best Winter Olympian of all time (13 medals! He's also the Olympian you'd least want to burglarize). Their speed skating teams are truly awesome: 13 / 18 Men's medals and 10/18 Women's medals in speed skating went to the Netherlands.Īll that with only winning won one non long-track speed skating medal. The Dutch had 4 sweeps in these games.Īdd to that the fact that there were other Dutch athletes in the top 6. Let's talk about the Dutch for a second. Contrast them to the United States: The US had their third sweep in Winter history 1956 - men's figure skating, 2002 - Men's halfpipe snowboarding) in Men's slope-style skiing. She medaled on that same Dutch relay team, and medaled on every individual event from the 1,000m to the 5,000m. Wüst was perhaps the most dominant athlete of the games, though. She ended up dominating the Women's 1500 meter long track, and picked up a team gold in the relay. Jorien's a funny story - she had been a short track skater, and started long track skating only a few years back. She just missed becoming the second to have two golds - by a mere few hundredths of a second in the bobsled. Williams is only the fifth person in history to pick up a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. We've got to go wonky here: Lauryn Williams of the United States and a couple of female Dutch speed skaters: Jorien ter Mors and Ireen Wüst had the most interesting games. Notable Performances in the 2014 Sochi Olympics (You May Have Missed) Interestingly, the United States did best in the bobsled - winning 4 of 9 of the total medals awarded (3 of the bronzes and a silver in Women's 2-Man). The US took home the bronze in team figure skating, but for the first time since 1936 no American individuals took home a figure skating medal. Yes, there was a tie for the gold medal in the Women's Downhill (Dominique Gisin, Switzerland Tina Maze, Slovenia), and tie for bronze in Men's Super-G (Bode Miller, USA Jan Hudec, Canada). You can call it 'innovative' scoring methods! A Gold Medal Tie in Women's Downhillĩ8 events were held, but there were 295 medals rewarded. 5 of their 9 gold medals came in sports which weren't held in Vancouver in 2010.Įven more, those sports represented 5/9 of gold medals, and 9/28 in overall medals. The United States: Winning the Innovative Sports Modern Russia has competed in the Olympics under 4 banners:Ĭombined, their medal count at the Winter Olympics is 194 + 124 + 0 = 318 medals! Add those up and they'd be second all time in the Winter Games through 2014, behind Norway. That's a full 15.6% of all medals in the games! Include the post-Soviet states (gold/silver/bronze): However, their count is even more impressive if you normalize it for countries previously in the USSR. Russia won 33 medals out of 295, a full 11.2% of all medals in the 2014 games. Russia had an Extremely Good Performance in the 2014 Olympics The United State's Alpine Snowboarding team didn't back him even though he had won 4 previous gold medals for the USA. Vic Wild – of White Salmon, Washington – won medals for Russia. The US even had an unforced error, causing an athlete to play for Russia. Notably, Victor Ahn (with a personal medal count of 4: - 3 gold and a bronze) was originally from South Korea. While countries formerly in the USSR would have made Russia's performance even more dominant, Russia benefited from some adoptions. Russia's Unification and Historical Footnotes on the Olympics Interestingly, 5 of those gold medals came in sports making their debut in the 2014 games. Russia was the absolute count winner and dominated both fronts: 33 total medals and 13 golds.įor my American friends, we at least won 9 golds and the "Bronze Title" with 12.
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