‘Depth’ will have to satisfy U.S. as medal haul won’t
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — A sweeping goal was spelled out to leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee last year: Team USA was targeted to win 37 medals at the Pyeongchang Games.
Heading into the final 48 hours, the U.S. had 21. Even if things were to go well in the handful of remaining events, the team will fall more than 10 medals short of the goal.
The information offers a slice of the data the USOC board uses to set expectations and approve funding for an upcoming Olympics. Providing resources to help athletes win medals is one of the federation’s foremost missions.
The USOC’s chief of sport performance, Alan Ashley, acknowledged the 2018 team will not reach its goal while also saying “we’re doing fine.”
“I look at it and I go, ‘OK, medals are one story, but if you look at the depth of everything that’s going on and the number of people who are fourth and fifth place, and the commitment level and intensity of the athletes, you can’t ask for more than that,’ ” Ashley said.
Heading into Friday night, 21 U.S. teams or athletes — including Mikaela Shiffrin, Nathan Chen and Lindsey Jacobellis — had finished fourth or fifth, accounting for part of the gap between expectation and reality.
Lindsey Vonn was one of the Americans with the most medal potential. She finished third in the downhill, tied for sixth in the super-G and did not finish the combined. She insisted that America’s performance shouldn’t be judged strictly by the medal count.
“The expectation of winning gold medals is pretty out of whack, and I think we need to be proud of all of our athletes for how much they’ve sacrificed and put in to be here,” she said. “Medals — they’re not necessarily what the Olympics are all about. To quantify it in how many medals you have is not appropriate and doesn’t respect the athletes and what they’ve put in to be in these Games.”
On the sport-by-sport breakdown, several teams missed their mark.
Speedskating was tabbed to win four medals; through Friday, it had one.
Bobsled and luge predicted a total of four; they had two.
Freestyle skiing and snowboarding, which have padded the U.S. medal count over the last few Olympics, were pegged to collect 18 medals. Heading into Saturday, those sports had amassed 10.
Reflected as a percentage of medals won — the number available has steadily grown with the addition of more action sports, among others — the U.S. took 14.3 percent in 2010, 9.6 percent in 2014 and will be at 7.5 percent this year if it closes with 23.