The United States currently has the most medals in snowboarding, with three gold medals and one bronze. Japan is in second with one silver and one bronze medal. Finally, Switzerland is in third with one gold medal.
The big news today is that Shaun White did not place in the men’s half pipe event. He was the reigning champion, winning gold in the last 2 Olympic Games. Earlier this week he dropped out of Olympic Slope style to focus on winning the half pipe completion. Some other athletes believe he dropped out because he thought he couldn’t win. He came in fourth place after receiving an amazing 95.75 in the qualifying round that put him in the finals. On his first run, he fell twice, and his second run was only average. Shaun White had an overall disappointing performance this year compared to past years, but there are rumors that he will return in 2018 to compete again.
Even though the United States did not do as well in the men’s half pipe as they had hoped, the US won two medals in the women’s half pipe competition. The snowboarders won gold, bronze, and fourth place. The women are Kaitlyn Farrington, gold, Kelly Clark, bronze, and Hannah Teter, fourth place. Farrington won gold with a score of 91.75, and silver was won with a score of 91.50. The competition was very intense this year, and all the competitors did very well.
Regardless of Shaun White dropping out of the Olympic Men’s Slopestyle, the US still did a fantastic job. The United States won gold, silver, and bronze. Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper are the winners of slopestyle this year.
Although the United States has done exceptionally well so far, many athletes are disappointed with the conditions of the courses. For example, the half pipe is supposed to be very smooth so the athletes can get a lot of momentum, but the half pipe in Sochi was very rigid, thus riders could not get enough speed for their tricks. The temperature has reached up to 63 degrees Fahrenheit and close to all of the athletes are upset. The long distance skiers actually started to take some of their layers off because it was too warm. It also makes landing tricks difficult because the ground is too slushy. Overall, the United States has done very well, but there are many more competitions to come.
