Winners and losers from the Pyeongchang Olympics
From the Olympics highlights: See scenes, interviews from final weekend of Winter Games series
Mark Zeigler of The San Diego Union-Tribune recaps the winners and losers of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Intro
If there was a downside to these Olympics, other than the Norovirus that swept through the staffers, it is the troubling trend of dwindling attendance. Other than families of athletes, tourists were scared off by political tensions in Sochi and Zika (and a whole bunch of other stuff) in Rio — and locals couldn’t afford tickets.
But everything else about the past three weeks was outstanding: venues, organization, technology, transportation, staffing, security. Koreans should grab a gold medal and place it around their own neck.
Here's a look at other winners and losers.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune
Above: Performers at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium during the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Sunday, February 25, 2018, in South Korea. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Winner: Norway
The country of 5.3 million won so much — 14 golds and 39 overall medals, both Winter Olympic records — that it ran out of special gold-colored shoes it issues to victorious athletes for medal ceremonies. The 39, nine more than its pre-Games target, broke the Winter Olympics record set by the United States in 2010. Marit Bjoergen won four cross-country skiing medals, making her the most decorated Winter Olympian in history with 14. The next two athletes on the list, of course, are also Norwegians. But her record might not be safe. Johannes Klaebo won three golds in his Olympic debut, at age 21.
Above: Marit Bjoergen of Norway celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the gold medal during the Women's 4x5km Relay at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Loser: Russia
With athletes doped to the gills, they won 13 gold medals. With a diluted team of 168 athletes who had supposedly passed a strict anti-doping review, competing as the awkwardly named Olympic Athletes from Russia, they won one or two golds, depending on the late men’s hockey final. (Yeah, the drugs work.) But the one thing the Russians absolutely couldn’t have happen, did. First, a curler tested positive and had his bronze medal stripped. Then a bobsledder tested positive, just weeks after filming a commercial wearing a white sweatshirt that said, in English: “I don’t do doping.” We can’t make this stuff up.
Above: A Russian fan went all out to support the Olympic Athletes From Russia against the United States in a charged atmosphere at the Gangneung Ice Arena. (Elliott Almond/Bay Area News Group/TNS)
Winner: U.S. women’s hockey
They won last March, threatening to boycott the World Championships in Michigan unless USA Hockey stopped dragging its feet on a new contract that provided equitable pay and support with the men’s program (which it did, after no one would play on its scab team). Then they won again here, getting a late goal to force overtime against nemesis Canada and prevailing in a dramatic shootout in the game of the Games.
Above: USA players Meghan Duggan, left, and Hilary Knight with gold medals after defeating Canada at Gangneung Hockey Centre on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Loser: NHL
Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL decided they would rather remain a niche sport in North America instead of using the global platform of the Olympics to extend their reach into Asia and beyond. Mission accomplished.
Above: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands off to Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19) the Stanley Cup on Monday, June 15, 2015, at the United Center in Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Winner: Mirai Nagasu
For the past six weeks, the figure skater from Arcadia captivated America with her hard-luck story of being left off the 2014 Olympic team despite finishing third at the U.S. Championships, sitting on the roof of her parents’ house eating an In-N-Out burger to decide her competitive future, coming back, making the 2018 team, becoming the first U.S. woman to land the elusive triple axel at Winter Games, enchanting media with her ditzy charm.
Loser: Mirai Nagasu
And then blew it all in six minutes of interviews after a dreadful free program in the individual event. She clicked off excuses like Russians do triple jumps: cold showers, early bedtimes, traffic on the way to a Lunar New Year celebration at USA House, the exhausting team event, walking in the opening ceremony. When someone politely asked about the struggles of U.S. skaters, she chucked a Canadian skater who had fallen even more under the bus. She said she considered the Olympic free program — the apex of a skater’s lifelong journey — merely an audition for “Dancing with the Stars,” which she deserves to be on because “I want to be a star.” Two words: Train. Wreck.
Winner: The Olympic Gaymes
For a couple of guys who finished 10th and 12th in their individual events, figure skater Adam Rippon and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy sure received a lot of attention. As they should. As the first two openly gay U.S. male athletes at Winter Olympics, they changed perceptions at the Olympics but, more importantly, back home. Think about this: NBC showed Kenworthy kissing his boyfriend on live, prime-time TV.
Above: Adam Rippon of Team USA reacts after his routine during the Team Event Men Single Skating competition during the 2018 Winter Olympics on Monday, February 12, 2018 at Gangneung Ice Arena in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Loser: Mike Pence
The Vice President, who once walked out of an NFL stadium because people weren’t standing as a sign of respect, refused to stand when a unified Korea team historically marched into the stadium at the opening ceremony. Then he picked a Twitter fight with Rippon that he couldn’t possibly win. Then Kenworthy posted a picture of him with his arm around Rippon at the opening ceremony with the message: “Eat your heart out, Pence.”
Above: Vice President Mike Pence, center front row, sits a row away from North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, far left, at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on February 9, 2018. A White House official says Pence and Kim did not interact despite being seated just feet apart. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./Zuma Press/TNS)
Winner: Canada
Breaks its record for a Winter Olympics with 29 medals.
Above: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada compete in the Team Event Ice Dance Free Dance during the 2018 Winter Olympics on Monday, February 12, 2018 at Gangneung Ice Arena in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Loser: Canada
Doesn’t win gold in the only events it really cares about — men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s curling — and then a ski cross athlete and his coach get drunk, steal an idling car and drive it to the Athletes Village because they were “cold.”
Above: Gigi Marvin (19) shoots the puck past Canada goalie Shannon Szabados (1) during the shootout at Gangneung Hockey Centre Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Winner: U.S. snowboarders
Shaun White, Chloe Kim, Jamie Anderson and Red Gerard sweep the snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle events for the United States. In all, snowboarders are responsible for seven of Team USA’s 23 medals.
Above: Chloe Kim, of the USA, and teammate Arielle Gold, right, celebrate after placing first and third in the Women's Snowboard Halfpipe finals at Phoenix Snow Park during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games on February 13, 2018. (Mark Reis/Colorado Springs Gazette/Zuma Press/TNS)
Loser: U.S. snowboarder
Eighteen-month-old allegations of sexual harassment come back to haunt Shaun White hours after he wins an unprecedented third gold when he dismisses them as “gossip.” He later apologizes for his choice of words. Too late. Ketchup out of the bottle. Legacy stained. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Winner: Kikkan Randall
The 35-year-old cross-country skier on her fifth Olympic team makes the most of the experience, winning gold in the sprint free relay when teammate Jessie Diggins passes favorites from Norway and Sweden in the final moments for the first U.S. women’s medal in the sport. The following afternoon, she is elected to the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission. Said Randall, the only mother on the U.S. team: “I have so much passion and energy to put toward the Olympic movement, and it feels so good to have the athletes put their faith in me.”
Above: Team USA's Kikkan Randall during her leg in the Women's 4x5km Relay at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. The USA finished in fifth place. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Loser: Shani Davis
Shani Davis, the 35-year-old speed skater on his fifth Olympic team, loses a coin flip, per USOC rules, to luger Erin Hamlin to break a tie for U.S. flagbearer at the opening ceremony, then ruins her moment with a toxic tweet that references Black History Month. Then skips the ceremony. Then, after not contending in either of his races, breaks IOC rules and refuses to exit through the media area (as all athletes are required) even after being told he could face repercussions. What should have been a celebration of an illustrious, barrier-breaking career became a pathetic example of someone unable to get out of his own way. (Yohei Osada/AFLO/Zuma Press/TNS)
Winner: Ester Ledecka
Racing well down the start order when the course is typically slush, 22-year-old Ester Ledecka from the Czech Republic won skiing’s super-G and then wore her goggles in the news conference because it was so unexpected that “I didn’t wear any makeup.” A week, she won the parallel giant slalom … on a snowboard, becoming the first person in 90 years to win gold in different sports at the same Winter Games. “It was quite tough,” she said, “to change myself into a snowboarder.” (Tobias Hase/DPA via ZUMA Press/TNS)
Loser: U.S. skating
The women’s hockey team aside, not a good Games for Americans on skates. The men’s hockey team got smoked in pool play by Russia and went out in the quarterfinals. The previous worst finish in women’s figure skating, part of the Winter Games since 1908, was sixth place; the three U.S. women here were ninth, 10th and 11th. There was one medal in short track speed skating, and one in long track. The latter came in the women’s team pursuit, and here’s what it has come to for a once-storied program: Matched against the mighty Dutch in the semifinals, the Americans basically tanked by resting their fastest skater to save energy for the third-place race.
Above: Team USA's James Wisniewski (21) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal in the second period against Slovakia on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics at Gangneung Hockey Centre in South Korea. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
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