State your case: Which United States Olympic performance has been most impressive so far in Sochi?
The first ever men’s slopestyle event in the Olympics took place Friday. The course was the subject of complaints about snow, quality and overall safety. None of this seemed to matter to the Americans.
The opening stamp for what will be an iconic event was a sweep for the U.S. skiers. It was simply a dominant performance by the Americans. They had four people in the finals and boosted the U.S. medal count. It was only the third sweep for the U.S. in winter olympic history. The most recent was the snowboard halfpipe event in 2002, and the last one was in 1956 in men’s figure skating.
What’s more is the gold medalist, Joss Christensen, and silver medalist, Gus Kenworthy, have been friends since childhood. The bronze medalist, Nick Goepper, had won the past two X Games events.
So to recap, the U.S. swept its first ever skiing event, in the first ever ski slopestyle event, topped by two childhood friends and rounded out by the man on top of the event for the last two years. Nothing in the Olympics so far has topped that. In fact, the only thing that could top that would be the first gold in men’s hockey since the “Miracle on Ice” team.
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Twitter: @dahdahusu
The most impressive U.S. moment in the Sochi Olympics happened Monday night when Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the gold medal for ice dancing.
Their routine told the story of a Persian king and the woman who woos him, and the chemistry the pair shares was evident. The duo gave the best performance they could have hoped for, scoring 116.63 points in the free dance to finish with 195.52 overall.
The gold medal performance marked a historic win for the U.S. as it was the first gold medal ever won by a pair of American figure skaters in the Olympics.
Davis and White have been partners for 17 years and are the current reigning world champions in ice dancing. They train alongside Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, who took home the silver.
Davis and White took home a silver medal in Vancouver four years ago behind Virtue and Moir, so they felt they had a lot to prove in the race for gold. The Americans beat Virtue and Moir to the gold this time by 4.53 points.
The duo became the first American figure skaters to ever have a medal of each color, adding their gold to their silver from Vancouver and their bronze in the new team skating event.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the victory was that White and Davis were awarded the highest points total ever in an ice dancing event, making their performance literally the best in history.
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Twitter: @emily_seamqueen