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Team USA Hopes Week 2 Sees Improved Results From First Week

Ligety finished 15th in the giant slalom after winning a gold medal in the event in SochiGETTY IMAGES

The Pyeongchang Games are "shaping up as a frustrating Olympics for an American team that had hopes of finishing near the top of the medal table," according to Tim Dahlberg of the AP. The "biggest team" in the Games so far has "been a flop, winning so few medals that you can count them on both hands." The U.S. "runs an extensive winter training program with millions of dollars spent every year to train top athletes just for this occasion." The USOC took in more than $300M in '16 alone, with a "big chunk of that used to train elite athletes." One problem is that there is a "lack of star power emerging in South Korea." Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin "delivered gold in her first race, but stumbled in the giant slalom and will have to rebound" moving forward. Meanwhile, Gold Medal-winning snowboarder Shaun White "might be in his last Olympics and was tarnished by reports of a civil sexual-harassment suit against him." U.S. teenagers "have a lot of potential," including snowboarders Chloe Kim and Red Gerard. Yet at the "other end of the experience spectrum, former gold medalists Lindsey Vonn and Ted Ligety have failed to deliver." Add in the "lackluster performance of the U.S. hockey team" and "there’s not a lot to cheer." The Games "could be salvaged somewhat by some of the athletes with events left" (AP, 2/19). FIVETHIRTYEIGHT's Neil Paine wrote under the header, "The U.S. Is On Pace For A Lousy Olympics." The "good news for the U.S., however, is that there are plenty of medal events remaining in which American athletes excel" (FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.com, 2/17). SI.com's Michael Rosenberg writes the "disappointing American performance is a combination of bad luck, missed opportunities and genuine systemic failure." The team "cannot figure out how to win in traditional or short-track speedskating." And "all the talk about" Shiffrin "hid the reality that the U.S. doesn’t have many other medal threats in traditional skiing events" (SI.com, 2/19).

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: USA TODAY's Christine Brennan wrote, "If coming close counted, the Americans would be cleaning up." Team USA "has 24 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place finishes: eight fourths, nine fifths and seven sixths." Brennan: "Now that’s some serious depth." The "disappointments and close calls for the Americans have befallen the famous and the barely known" (USATODAY.com, 2/18). In Boston, John Powers noted Team USA in several sports has been "reminded that their European rivals take the pre-Olympic world championships less seriously than they do the actual Games." What has "made the Americans a force ever since they hosted in Salt Lake City four quadrennia ago is their strength across the board, which is what the Canadians have now." In Sochi, the U.S. stash "came from nine of the 15 sports." So far this time U.S. X Gamers have "accounted for five of the eight medals" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/18). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Rachel Bachman wrote Team USA so far is "doing a faceplant." Four of Team USA’s "five gold medals, plus a bronze have come from snowboarders" (WSJ.com, 2/17).

EXPECTATIONS TOO HIGH? ESPN’s Kate Fagan said the U.S. has a "deluded self-perception about how good we actually are at the Winter Olympics." Fagan: "If you look back over the last 15-20 years, a lot of what we've been best at are really an introduction of X Games, new events that we were best at to begin with. Now you see the world catching up, and that's affecting us in our medal count.” N.Y. Daily News’ Frank Isola said the “expectations are way too high” for Team USA. The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke noted Winter Olympians "do not represent a cross-section of America, not like the summer Olympians,” so it is “hard to get too worked up” about the medal count (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 2/16).  

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