As of yesterday’s competition, the United States was tied with Russia with 18 medals, but Russia has more liver medals than the U.S. The Netherlands has 17 medals. Germany has the most gold medals with 8, while the U.S. is tied with others at 5 gold medals.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the gold medal in ice dance Monday, the first Olympic title in the event for the United States. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, the 2010 champions, took silver. Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov captured bronze. Davis and White won silver in Vancouver, but in the four years since have overtaken the Canadians, their training partners in Detroit. The Americans scored 116.63 points in the free dance to finish with 195.52, 4.53 ahead of Virtue and Moir.
After a near-flawless performance to “Sheherazade,” Davis rested her head on White’s back in exhausted elation.
The U.S. two-man bobsled team of Steven Holcomb and Steve Langton won the bronze medal. Their time of 3:46.27 was 0.88 off the gold medal winning performance of the Russian duo. U.S. teams also finished 12th and 13th.
Megan Bozek, Kendall Coyne and Brianna Decker each had a goal and two assists to help the United States beat Sweden 6 to 1 Monday and earn a spot in the gold medal game against Canada at the Sochi Olympics. Jesse Vetter needed just eight saves to help the Americans clinch no worse than a silver medal. The U.S. has medaled in every Winter Games since women’s hockey was added in 1998, and just once, with a loss to Sweden in the 2006 semifinals, failed to reach the Olympic championship game. The United States will play the winner of the late semifinal between Canada and Switzerland for the gold medal. The 3 to 1 victory by Canada over Switzerland sets up a rematch of the 1998, 2002 and 2010 finals.
The United States men’s curling team is already out of contention for the medal round, and they lost 6 to 3 to Switzerland.
The U.S. women’s team is also out of contention for the medal round and they lost 11 to 2 to Korea yesterday, as it only went 7 of 10 rounds.