As the first week of the 2010 Winter Olympics draws to a close tonight think of this: by the end of the day today the United States could be holding 21 medals. They’ve already won eighteen, six of them Gold, and have a chance to put three more Americans on the podium tonight. If the U.S. can keep at this pace they’ll have a chance to meet or tie the overall medal count record of thirty-six set by Germany in 2002. If you’ve been following you know that the Americans have had a couple of very strong days in a row. Yesterday, Evan Lysacek won the first Men’s Figure Skating Gold for the U.S. since Brian Boitano in 1988. The day before that, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn won their events with relative ease.
Plushenko came back from retirement to compete in the Olympics. How did that work out for ya buddy?
Today we have the medal rounds of the Men’s Super G, and Men’s and Women’s Skeleton. In the Super G event, look for Bode Miller, who is one of the most popular American skiers, as well as the youngster Andrew Weibrecht to be at or near the top of the leader board. The Women’s Skeleton event will also offer an opportunity for the U.S. to add to the medal count. Noelle Pikus-Pace and Katie Uhlaender have won World Championships and would love to add Olympic Gold to their resumes. There are still 60 medal events left on the schedule; in many of which, the Americans have strong athletes. My prediction: the U.S. comes away with 18 more medals in the second week and ties the 2002 German team. Not bad, eh? Get it? Because the games are in Vancouver?