U.S. Olympic Team Ends Games with Mixed Results

The Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, ended February 26 with the passing of the Olympic torch to the Mayor of Vancouver, Canada, the host of the next winter games.  For the U.S. Team, the games ended with the usual medals and disappointments that are a part of every sporting event.

The United States did well in the games. U.S. athletes won 25 medals. Nine of the medals were gold.

First place winners get gold medals. Second-place finishers get silver medals. Third-place finishers get bronze medals.

Germany won the most medals in the games. It won 29. Canada was third with 24 medals. Austria won 23.

The bad news

Several big disappointments marred the United States effort.

Michelle Kwan dropped out of the figure skating event. She went to the games with an injury that got worse during practice. She was favored to win her first Olympic gold medal. Skier Bode Miller failed to win a medal. Many thought he would win several.

The women’s hockey team won only a bronze. It was favored for a gold medal. The men’s hockey team failed to win any medals.

Then there was a feud between speed skaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick of the U.S. team.  Hedrick said he wanted to win five gold medals. He won the 5,000-meter race early on. Then he got upset at Davis for not competing in a team relay event.

Davis won gold in the 1,000 meters. He was the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympics individual gold medal. Still, as the world watched, Hedrick did not congratulate him. He believed that with Davis on the U.S. team they would have won the gold.

While the world watched at a news conference, Hedrick did not congratulate Davis.  Then the two also criticized each other after the 1,500-meter race. Davis won silver in that event. Hedrick won bronze. Hedrick also won a silver medal in the 10,000-meter race.

Help for Sudan famine victims

Of course, there was good news for the United States.

U.S. snowboarders won seven medals. No other athletes won more.

Speed skater Joey Cheek won gold in the 500 meters. He then donated his $25,000 medal bonus to famine victims in the Sudan. He won silver in the 1,000 meters. Cheek also donated the $15,000 bonus from that race to the cause.

Companies matched his donations. Cheek raised more than $250,000 for the Sudan famine victims.

Apolo Ohno wins three medals

Short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno won gold in the 500 meters. He won bronze in both the 1,000 meters and 5,000-meter team relay.

Tara Lipinski won a silver medal in figure skating. Julia Mancuso won gold in the giant ski slalom. She had never even won a World Cup ski race before.

“This has been an incredible performance,” said U.S. Olympic Committee head Jim Scherr. “It’s probably our fault that it’s been viewed a little less than that.”

The Winter Olympics are held every four years.  The 2010 Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, Canada.

Source: MSNBC.com, Yahoo.com, The Associated Press, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel