Jamie Anderson after winning gold in Slopestyle Snowboarding
The games have begun!
The February 7th Opening Ceremonies marked the start of the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. There were high expectations from previous years for a great show and right from the start the interpretive performances proved to be an entertaining start to the Games.
At the start of the ceremony, five (well, almost five) snowflakes morphed into the Olympic rings followed by each nation making its way down the aisle through a featured map projected onto the stage.
Tuesday February 11th concluded the 5th day of the games as Norway took the lead with the highest number of medals. With eleven medals in total, Norway holds four bronze, three silver, and four gold medals. Canada follows right behind Norway with nine total, four of which are gold. The United States, currently in fifth place with seven medals behind the Netherlands and Germany, has two gold medals along with one silver and four bronze.
The United States earned two gold metals in snowboarding from Sage Kotsenburg and Jamie Anderson on February 8th and 9th in the Men’s and Ladies’ Slopestyles. Freestyle skiing earned the US a single silver in the Ladies’ Slopestyle event and a bronze in Ladies’ Moguls. Additionally, figure skating and alpine skating both earned the US one bronze metal each.
Sage Kotsenburg wins gold!
History has already been made at the games in Singles Luge and Women’s Ski Jumping!
American Erin Hamilton earned bronze and became the first American ever to win a medal in Singles Luge.
Carina Vogt of Germany became the first Olympic champion in women’s ski jumping, an event just added to the games this year.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist, Shaun White, dropped out of the Slopestyle snowboarding competition due to fear of injury. White said that he was worried about the risk of injury and wanted to devote more of his attention to his goal of becoming the first American Winter Olympic athlete to win a gold medal three years in a row for the same event.
The games are still in their beginning days and there are a lot more medals to be won. Stay tuned!
USA competes in the first ever Singles Luge event
Source
USA TODAY (hyperlink: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/02/05/olympics-winter-games-sochi-usa-slopestyle-high-risk/5219135/)