The United States finished fifth in overall medals with 25 in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The US won 8 golds in: 500m speed skating, the mixed team snowboard cross, women’s halfpipe (snowboarding), mixed team snowboard cross, men’s singles (free skating), women’s monobob (bobsledding), men’s style (skiing) and women’s 30km (skiing). 

USA three time gold medalist Shaun White performed his last run before retirement on February 10. White was the oldest athlete in the men’s halfpipe this year by 7 years. Shaun scored 4th place overall, and Japans’ Ayumu Hirano won gold. White was behind Jan Scherrer (bronze winner) by 2.25 points. 

Many records were broken by team USA this year. Jessie Diggins won silver in the cross country ski, making her the first non-European to receive a medal in the event. Mikaela Shiffrin is not only the youngest Slalom Ski champion in alpine skiing history, she also is the second woman in history to compete in six (skiing) events in one Olympic Game. 

Nick Baumgarter became the oldest (40) Olympic medalist in snowboarding when he won gold in the mixed team snowboard cross. Elena Meyers Taylor became the most decorated African American athlete in the history of the winter Olympics (5 medals). Taylor is also the oldest woman to earn a medal at the winter Olympics. Erin Jackson became the first African American woman to win a medal in speed skating. 

Erin Jackson won gold for the USA, but she almost didn’t compete at all. Jackson sustained an injury when she slipped during qualifiers, and only gained her spot back when a teammate gave her their spot. She became the first African American woman to win gold (or even medal) in the Olympic speed skating event. 

The last event of the winter olympics was the women’s 30 km cross country ski. USA’s Jessie Diggins competed despite suffering from food poisoning. Jessie came to the Olympics as the only American to have a medal in any cross country event (she had gold). Diggins finished her course this year in 1 hour 26 minutes and 37 seconds, just 1 minute and 43 seconds away from gold. 

A common misconception about the Olympics is its age range. Kamila Valieva, who won gold in figure skating for Russia, is just 15 years old. USA’s Hannah Faulhaber, who placed sixth with her trio in women’s halfpipe (skiing) is only 17 years old. Whereas Germany’s Claudia Pechstein (speed skater) is 49 years old. Interestingly enough, 85 of the USA Olympic athletes this year were current/former college athletes. 

The US figure skating team’s silver medals are being withheld for the time being. Kamila Valieva (Russian figure skater) came back from a performance enhancing test with a positive result for a banned heart medicine (trimetazidine) that increases blood flow and performance. 

The drug was also found alongside two other medications which have relatively the same effect, but are not banned from the games. Valieva was part of the Russian team who won gold in the figure skating team event. Until further review all who medaled in the event will not be receiving their physical medals. 

Amanda Kessel scored with only 12 seconds left on the clock in the women’s hockey event, making it a one point game. The final score was 3-2 and Canada took back the gold from team USA (the defending gold champion). Canada now holds 5 out of the 7 golds in women’s hockey. 

The US men’s hockey team was eliminated in the quarterfinals game. The score for that game was also 3-2 and Slovakia headed to the semi finals. The final game was close between Russia and Finland. Finland won 2-1. 

The Olympics ended Sunday, February 20. The USA Paralympic team has a lot of promising athletes returning this year, looking to defend their gold title. The sled hockey team will be going for their fourth gold in a row this year, as well as looking to add another world title to their record. Team USA is particularly good in sled hockey, they’ve won 5 out of 7 of the world titles they’ve competed for. Team USA is looking to defend their title from the last winter Paralympic games. In the 2018 PyeongChang games, USA won a total of 36 medals, 13 being gold. Winter Paralympics will begin Friday, March 4.