America Takes on the World: PyeongChang hosts the 2018 Winter Olympics

March 19, 2018

With an emotional and festive Closing Ceremony, the 2018 Olympic Winter Games came to an end after 17 action-packed days of sport that inspired not only the 2,930 athletes who competed, but also the world.

After 19 days of competition in PyeongChang, South Korea, Norway came out on top of the final medal count.

Norway rounded out the Winter Games with 14 gold medals in events such as Cross- Country Skiing, 14 silver medals in events such as Alpine Skiing, and, 11 bronze medals in events such as Curling, according to CBS Sports.

After a number of historic wins for the United States late in the Games, Team USA finished fourth with 23 total medals, including nine golds.

The 2018 Olympic Games came with a number of surprises and spills, including everything from record-breaking performances to gold-medal favorites failing to make the podium.

According to olympic.org, the official 2018 Winter Olympics website, the United States was an example of both: figure skaters Nathan Chen and Mirai Nagasu made history with their performances on the ice, but failed to make it on the individual podium.

They did, however, both take home a bronze medal with the rest of their team.

Surprises late in the Olympics helped boost Team USA’s medal count after a lackluster start, according to TIME Magazine, in an article reporting the United States results in PyeongChang.

The U.S. women’s ice hockey team beat Canada for gold for the first time in 20 years at the Games, and the men’s curling team won after making it to the country’s first-ever gold medal match in the event.

Snowboarders like Chloe Kim, Jamie Anderson, Shaun White and Red Gerard also dominated the sport’s podium with gold-medal wins in their respective events.

The 2018 Winter Games concluded with a spectacular Closing Ceremony, according to the New York Times.

The last 15 minutes of the ceremony were listed as an electronic dance music party.

The New York Times also reported that the DJs included Raiden, and Martin Garrix, a Dutch DJ, record producer and musician.

The athletes streamed out of the stands onto the floor and many of them danced- the American skiing athlete Lindsey Vonn led a conga line.

The popular boy band Exo, a South Korean-Chinese boy group, hit the stage later on to the delight of teenagers everywhere, including figure skating silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, who is a self-proclaimed Exo fan, according to The New York Times.

The Ceremony concluded with the announcement that the 2022 Winter Olympics Games would take place in Beijing, China.