Pyeongchang Games by the Numbers: Vonn Takes Bronze, U.S. Cross-Country Skiers Capture Gold, Speedskaters Medal

Lindsey Vonn races what's likely her last Olympic downhill, American cross-country skiers break a 42-year medal drought and Liechtenstein's sports royalty shines. Here are the Pyeongchang Games by the numbers: 

33 With a bronze finish in the women’s downhill, Lindsey Vonn became, at age 33, the oldest woman to medal in Alpine skiing in the Winter Games. She takes the record from Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister, who was just shy of her 33rd birthday when she won the downhill and the super-G at the 2006 Turin Olympics. At the Pyeongchang Games, Vonn's friend and rival Sofia Goggia of Italy finished the downhill in a time of 1 minute, 39:22 seconds, beating her by 0.47 seconds. It was Goggia’s first Olympic gold. And keeping Vonn out of second was a surprise performance from Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway, only 0.09 seconds behind Goggia. Vonn won a gold in the downhill and a bronze in the super-G at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but was forced to sit out Sochi four years later because of injuries. This will likely be Vonn’s last Olympics. "My body just can't, probably can't, take another four years,” she said after the downhill competition. Vonn has dedicated these Olympics to her grandfather, Don Kildow, who died in November. She has one more race, the Alpine combined on Thursday, but she is not a favorite for a medal.

1 Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first American cross-country skiers to win a gold medal, coming in first in the women’s team sprint. Their victory comes 42 years after Bill Koch won a bronze in the 30 kilometer race at the 1976 Winter Games, the only other American cross-country skier to capture a medal. Diggins and Randall earned the first-place position after skiing the fastest overall time during the seminfinals.

7 Tina Weirather, the only woman representing the tiny country of Liechtenstein, added to her family’s legacy when she finished third in the super-G. Seven of Liechtenstein’s 10 Alpine skiing medals were won by her family. Her mother, Hanni Wenzel, is a four-time Olympic medalist, with a bronze in slalom in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976 and gold in slalom and giant slalom and a silver in downhill in Lake Placid in 1980. Her uncle, Andreas Wenzel, has a silver in men’s giant slalom from Lake Placid, and a bronze, again in giant slalom, from Sarajevo in 1984.

3Three men from Team USA qualified for the big air final Wednesday — Kyle Mack, Chris Corning and Red Gerard — with the sport making its debut at these Olympic Games. With 12 men in the final, the United States has a solid shot at snagging a spot -- or more -- on the podium Saturday (Friday night in the U.S.). But one of the sport’s biggest names already has been eliminated. Norway’s Marcus Cleveland, 18, and thought to be one of the strongest contenders for gold, fell on his second run.

16 — Heather Bergsma and Brittany Bowe redeemed what had been a disappointing Olympics with a bronze medal in the women’s speedskating team pursuit. Also skating for the U.S. were Mia Manganello and, in the semifinals, Carlijn Schoutens. This is the United States’ first women’s speedskating Olympic medal since 2002, 16 years ago, when Jennifer Rodriguez won bronze in the 1500 meter. Japan broke the Olympic record to win gold in 2 minutes, 53.89 seconds, beating the record previously set by the Netherlands and the team from the Netherlands. The Japanese women have excelled at the Pyeongchang Games, winning five medals.

3-2 The Olympic dreams of the U.S. men’s hockey team were crushed with a 3-2 loss to the Czech Republic. The quarterfinal game ended with a penalty shootout, during which only one player managed to score, Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic. The Czechs move on to play the winner of a match-up between the Olympics Athletes from Russia and Norway, with the gold medal game scheduled for Sunday. The U.S. team was dominated by college students chosen because the National Hockey League refused to allow its athletes to participate in the Olympics. They were hoping to win the U.S.’ first gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” against the Soviet Union in 1980. Forward Ryan Donato, who attends Harvard University and who scored five goals in the tournament, called the Olympic experience unbelievable.

0.07 The U.S.’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs finished second in women's bobsled with a time of 3 minues 22.52 seconds, just 0.07 seconds back from the gold-medal German sled. That’s the slimmest difference between first and second in any Olympic bobsled race. Germany's Mariama Jamanka, who had never won a major international race until now, drove to gold. Canada's Kaillie Humphries teamed with Phylicia George to get third in 3:22.89. It was the third consecutive medal for both Meyers Taylor and Humphries. Meyers Taylor won bronze as a push athlete in 2010 and silver as a driver in 2014; Humphries won gold in each of those Olympic races.

19 Teams from Jamaica and Nigeria also made history in Pyeongchang. The Jamaican bobsled became the first women’s sled from the country to compete in the games. The women finished 19th. Nigerian women became the first African nation to participate in women’s bobsled. They finished 20th. 

10- 4 America’s men’s curling team is headed to its first Olympic semifinals match since 2006 after the team advanced with a 10-4 win against Great Britain in eight ends. The team secured third place with a 5-4 record and a four-time Olympian in skip John Shuster.

Contact Us