Page 19 - ARUBA TODAY

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SPORTS Monday 19 February 2018
Column: Red, white and bruised, US struggles to win medals

By TIM DAHLBERG reports of a civil sexual ha-
PYEONGCHANG, South Ko- rassment suit against him.
rea (AP) — It was, perhaps, U.S. teenagers have a lot of
the defining moment for potential. Kim dominated
the U.S. team at this Olym- in the halfpipe and could
pics. be a favorite in future Olym-
Not Shaun White blitzing pics, and fellow 17-year-old
the halfpipe in a final run to Red Gerard, who won gold
win gold, a win that came in men’s snowboard slope-
with some baggage by it- style . The teen figure skat-
self. Or Chloe Kim delight- ers Nathan Chen and Vin-
ing fans from two countries cent Zhou finished fifth and
when she won her halfpipe, sixth, but they were the big-
either. gest jumpers in the compe-
No, it came on Friday tition and could be back
when — within 20 seconds with more experience.
of each other — Nathan At the other end of the
Chen skated his way out experience spectrum, for-
of medal contention and mer gold medalists Lindsey
Mikaela Shiffrin faltered in Vonn and Ted Ligety have
the slalom she had been so far failed to deliver. Hard
expected to ski away with. to believe, but the last
And with it went any medal for a U.S. woman
chance the U.S. had of Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States, reacts to her time during the second run of the women's sla- figure skater was the silver
redeeming itself in what is lom at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. Sasha Cohen won in Turin
(AP Photo/Morry Gash)
shaping up as a frustrating 12 years ago. q
Olympics for an American million in 2016 alone, with a
team that had hopes of big chunk of that used to
ending up near the top of train elite athletes.
the medal table. That's a lot of money with
The biggest team in the very little to show for it.
Olympics — 241 athletes Through Sunday American
— has been a flop so far, athletes are fifth on the
winning so few medals that medal list.
you can count them on Take away the new sports
both hands. Take away the added to the Olympics
new wave of snowboard- since 1992, and the U.S.
ing events, and you can would have a grand total
count them with one hand. of two medals.
But if those waving the red, The Associated Press had
white and blue want a sta- projected the U.S. to have
tistic that really stuns, con- 20 medals at this point, and
sider this one: Team USA has averaged 30
Norway, a nation of 5.3 mil- medals total over the last
lion people is leading with three Winter Olympics.
25 medals so far, or one for With the dismal perfor-
every 212,000 Norwegians. mance have come dismal
The U.S., a nation of some ratings for NBC, which paid
320 million people, has 10 $963 million for the games,
medals or one for every 32 up from $775 million for So-
million Americans. chi. While the Olympics still
It could be worse. Russia win the prime-time battle
— which won the medal in the U.S., the total audi-
count in Sochi four years ence tuning in was down
ago — is still waiting for its 16 percent Thursday night,
first gold medal. But at least with the viewership on NBC
the Russians — who are not alone down 29 percent.
an official team here — What should be more con-
have an excuse because cerning to the network —
some of its best dopers from and U.S. officials — is the
Sochi were banned from lack of star power emerg-
these games. Even the ing in South Korea.
partial Russian team has Shiffrin delivered gold in
10 medals overall, same as her first race, but stumbled
the U.S. in the giant slalom and will
The U.S. runs an extensive have to rebound in the
winter training program combined and downhill
with millions of dollars spent if she is going to become
every year to train top ath- a multi-medalist in these
letes just for this occasion. games. White, meanwhile,
The U.S. Olympic Commit- may be in his last Olym-
tee took in more than $300 pics and was tarnished by