(USA TODAY Sports Images)
The competition ended Sunday at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Which nation ruled the medal count? How did the United States fare? Which athletes went home with the biggest haul? And just how dominant was the Dutch speedskating team? For The Win answers those questions, and many more, with the 14 most interesting facts about the final Winter Olympics medal count.
1. Russia ruled Russia
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
No matter the metric, the host nation won a decisive medal-count victory. Russia won 13 gold medals in Sochi, two more than runner-up Norway. Overall, Russian athletes won 33 medals, five more than the United States’ 28. It’s the first time the host nation swept both medal counts since Norway did it at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo.
2. United States is king of the bronze
USA TODAY Sports
It didn’t look good for the United States. No medals in individual figure skating for the first time since 1936. No medals in speedskating for the first time since 1984. The four most identifiable Winter Olympians — Shaun White, Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis — won a total of one bronze medal. (In Vonn’s defense, she wasn’t competing in Sochi due to injury.) The women’s hockey team blew a late 2-0 lead in the gold-medal game and the men’s team was outscored 6-0 in the medal rounds. Still, it wasn’t all bad. American athletes won 28 medals, good for second on the overall medal count. (That was nine fewer medals than the U.S. won in Vancouver, however.) Team USA’s 12 bronze medals were the most for any nation. It’s the third time in the past four Winter Olympics the Americans have won that tally.
3. Dutch (speedskating) masters
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
The speedskating team from The Netherlands won 23 medals (eight gold, seven silver, eight bronze). Among the remarkable aspects of that achievement:
a. The Dutch speedskating team alone would have finished sixth on the overall medal count.
b. While the Dutch won 23 medals on the oval, all other nations won 13 medals combined.
c. Since 1998, no other country has won more golds in speedskating than the Dutch won in Sochi. (The U.S. and Germany had seven each.)
d. They did this all with just 41 athletes in Sochi. Canada earned one more medal with 180 more athletes.
e. The Netherlands only won one more medal in the Olympics. It came in short-track speedskating, of course.
4. The rise and fall of Germany
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
For the early days of the Winter Games, Germany led the gold-medal count, thanks to a dominating performance in luge. (German lugers won all four golds in the luge events.) But once luge ended, it was all downhill from there, as Germany ended up finishing sixth in both medal counts. That’s the worst performance for any post-Berlin Wall German team and the worst for a main German Olympic squad in 46 years.
5. The Dutch did the most with the least
The Dutch team at the Opening Ceremony. (AP)
We’ve listed the medal count by golds, total medals and per-capita rates. So how about medals per athlete in Sochi? Winning 10 medals with 100 athletes is more impressive than winning 12 medals with 200 athletes, right?
It’s no surprise the Netherlands leads this total, with 24 medals from 41 athletes equaling one medal for every 1.7 competitors. Belarus was second (six medals for 24 competitors; 1 for 4), followed by Norway (every 5.15 athletes), France (7) and Russia (7.03). The worst medal-per-athlete rate was Slovakia, which won a single medal for its 62 athletes. Croatia was the smallest delegation to medal, winning one with just 11 athletes. The biggest delegations not to medal in Sochi? Romania and Estonia were shutout with 24 athletes each.
6. Belarus comes out of nowhere
Belarus won more medals in the 15k biathlon than from 2002-06. (USA TODAY Sports Images)
In its only five Olympics prior to Sochi, the former Soviet Republic earned a total of one gold medal and never finished better than 15th in the medal count. In Sochi, Belarusian athletes won five golds and finished eighth in the medal count. Just by herself, biathlete Darya Domracheva (three gold medals) did better in Sochi than her entire nation had done at the five previous Winter Olympics.
7. Come on, Spain, Chinese Tapei and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, pull your weight.
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Through 44 events, 26 nations won medals at the Winter Olympics, which tied the record set at both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games. After 98 events, 26 nations won medals at the Winter Olympics. The record remained. (Stat via @nzaccardi).
8. The no-medal gold medalists
Iceland didn’t medal in Sochi. ICE-land didn’t medal at the Winter Olympics. That’s like, I don’t know, the sun getting shut out at the Summer Olympics. But this isn’t as unexpected as you’d think. Though it’s baffling on all levels, Iceland has actually never medaled at any Winter Games. The tiny nation sent just five athletes to Sochi and none finished better than 34th in their respective events.
While it’s no surprise countries like Brazil, Lebanon and Togo didn’t get medals in Sochi, the lack of success of a few nations might raise an eyebrow. Belgium, for instance, has won just one medal since 1952 and Denmark only has one medal ever.
9. Mikaela Shiffrin pulled a Michael Phelps
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
As noted by Alan Abrahamson, skiing’s up-and-coming star finished fifth in her first Olympic race. In her second, she won gold. Phelps pulled the same feat in the Summer Games (over his first two appearances).
10. Speaking of Phelps …
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Two years after the swimming star became the most decorated Summer Olympian in history, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen became the most decorated Winter Olympian in history, winning his 13th carer medal in Sochi. That moved him past his countryman and fellow Bjoern, Bjoern Daehlie. Not to be outdone, another Norwegian cross-country skier, Marit Bjoergen, became the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever. She won her sixth career gold in Sochi.
11. Russian transplants named Vic pay off
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Viktor Ahn, a South Korean speedskater who defected to Russia after the Vancouver Games, won three gold medals and a bronze in short track speedskating, making him the most decorated athlete in Sochi. Another foreign-born Russian athlete, American Vic Wild, won two golds in snowboard. Together, the Vic transplants would have finished a combined eighth on the overall medal count.
The other three-time gold medalists in Sochi: Bjoergen and Domracheva.
12. Who went home with the most hardware?
(Getty Images)
Which athlete won the most medals in Sochi? Would a Dutch speedskater suprise you? Ireen Wust took home five medals from Russia, winning two golds and three silvers. That was the biggest haul for any athlete and more than all but 19 nations.
Norwegian biathlete Tora Berger and Suk Hee Shim, a Korean short-track skater, had the Olympic rainbow award, winning gold, silver and bronze at these Winter Games. The hard-luck athlete in Sochi was Russian cross-country skier Maxim Vylegzhanin. He won three silvers, the final two coming in races that totaled 2 hours, 13 minutes. In those, he was a combined 1.68 seconds away from gold.
13. Americans didn’t double-up
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Only two Americans won multiple medals in Sochi. Meryl Davis and Charlie White won bronze in the team figure skating competition and a historic gold in the ice dancing. The one gold and one bronze tied them for 39th on the individual medal count.
14. Who ruled each sport?
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Which nations won the medal counts for the 15 sports at the 2014 Winter Olympics? It was largely spread out, with nine different countries being atop the 15 different sports.
Alpine skiing — Austria (3 gold/4 silver/2 bronze)
Biathlon — Norway (3/1/2)
Bobsled — Russia (2/0/0)
Cross-country — Norway (5/2/4)
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Curling — Canada (2/0/0)
Figure skating — Russia (3/1/1)
Freestyle skiing — Canada (4/4/1)
Ice hockey — Canada (2/0/0)
Luge — Germany (4/1/0)
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Nordic Combined — Norway (2/1/1)
Short track — Russia (3/1/1)
Skeleton — Russia (1/0/1)
Ski jumping — Germany and Poland (2/0/0)
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Snowboarding — United States (3/0/2)
Speedskating — Netherlands (8/7/8)
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
