From left to right: American athletes Gus Kenworthy, Joss Christensen, and Nick Goepper won the silver, gold, and bronze medals in men’s slopestyle skiiing.
The United States had many firsts in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. American snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg won a gold medal in the first event, which was also the first ever Olympic slopestyle event. Snowboarders and skiers who perform in slopestyle events must do difficult tricks while trying to make the highest jumps. To be successful at slopestyle, they have to perform a variety of tricks. They cannot do the same ones over and over. Slopestyle events first became popular in America’s Winter X Games before becoming Olympic events for the first time this year.
Americans won medals in all of the slopestyle contests for snowboarding and skiing. When Joss Christensen won gold and stood at the top of the podium for men’s slopestyle skiing, he was happy to share the honor with his American teammates, Gus Kenworthy, who won the silver medal, and Nick Goepper, who won the bronze. In women’s slopestyle events, Jamie Anderson won a gold medal for snowboarding and Devin Logan won silver for skiing.
In another first, the American figure skating team took the bronze in the new team figure skating event. Ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White led the U.S. team. They also became the first pair to ever win Olympic gold for the United States in the Ice Dancing competition. After training together for 17 years, Davis and White are very proud of their accomplishment.
In downhill skiing, 36-year-old Bode Miller became the oldest medalist in Olympic alpine history with his bronze win in the Super-G. The United States also had the youngest slalom gold medalist, 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin. The first jump in the first ever women’s Olympic ski jump competition was made by U.S. skier Sarah Hendrickson. She did not win a medal, but she was proud to be part of the historic event.
Overall, it was a good Olympics for the U.S. team. America won the second-most Olympic medals of any country with 28 total—9 gold, 7 silver, and 12 bronze. The U.S. team hopes to do even better at the next Winter Olympics, which will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.
Image credit: ©Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Related Link
- Sochi Medal Count
See how the United States and other countries did at the Sochi Olympics with this medal tracker.
Loading...
