On verge of worst winter medal haul, USA rallies
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — A hard look settled over John Shuster’s face, equal parts concentration and grit, as if he could move that 40-pound rock with his eyes.
The leader of the U.S. men’s curling team had just released a stone and was urging it along, watching it slide down the ice and come to rest at exactly the right spot.
“Yeah,” he said later. “Put an exclamation point on it.”
Shuster’s clutch shot all but clinched the gold medal in Saturday’s final against Sweden. On a grander scale, it did a whole lot more.
Victories in unexpected sports such as curling and cross-country — along with a dramatic win in women’s hockey — helped the U.S. forge a late rally and avoid what might otherwise have been a disappointing, if not embarrassing, 2018 Winter Olympics.
Headed for their worst Games performance in recent memory, the Americans rebounded to earn 23 medals, fourth in the overall standings behind Norway, Germany and Canada.
Still, that number pales in comparison to the 28 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the 37 at Vancouver four years earlier. It also fell short of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s own expectations.
According to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press, USOC leaders predicted a repeat of the Vancouver performance.
“Everybody focuses on medals —
I’m focused on them too,” said Alan Ashley, the U.S. chef de mission. “Yeah, you know, we always want to do better.”
There is something about the American sports psyche, a “just win” mentality that cannot settle for anything less, even in sports such as biathlon and ski jumping that most fans don’t care about until the Olympics come around.
For much of the last three weeks, the U.S. team has settled
for “pewter” medals — Olympic-speak for finishing just off the podium.
The Americans had 35 athletes finish fourth through sixth.
“Look at the depth of our team,” Ashley said, offering a positive spin. “We had some incredibly close calls.”
Maggie Voisin put it a different way after finishing fourth in the women’s ski slopestyle: “It is bittersweet; we can leave it at that.”
The Americans could have reached their goal if less than half of those near-miss athletes had skied a tenth of a second faster or landed one more jump in figure skating. And some of their struggles stemmed from issues beyond anyone’s control.
Last spring, bobsled icon Steve Holcomb was found dead in his room at a national training site, having succumbed to a combination of alcohol and sleeping pills.
Holcomb ranked among the top drivers in the world, winning three medals in the last two Winter Games. Without him, the U.S. men managed no better than ninth place.