2022 Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics were in Beijing this year. They started on February 4th and ended on February 20th. Medal history has been made this year by Norway who broke the record for most gold medals in a winter olympics having 16. They also won this year’s  Olympics with 37 medals in total. Second to them was Russia with 32. In third place was Germany with 27. In fourth was Canada with 26 medals just barely beating the U.S. The United States ended up in fifth place with 25 medals. The United States team was successful in winning twenty-five of the medals awarded at the Olympics. Eight gold, ten silver, and seven bronze. This is the lowest number of medals won by the U.S. at the winter Olympics in twenty years. We had an extremely rough start and Lindsey Jacobellis, a member of the U.S. women’s snowboarding team managed to win the women’s snowboard cross and was the one who brought us our first gold medal of the US teams 2022 olympics. She also was the only athlete out of all the countries who managed to win two gold medals. Russia won thirty-two medals which is the most ever won by Russia in the winter Olympics. There was also quite a bit of controversy in this year’s winter Olympics and many are saying it is one of the most scandalous Olympics yet due to the following scandals that took place. The ROC’s (Russian Olympic Committee) figure skating team win was questioned due to athlete Kamila Valieva’s positive doping test and use of Trimetazidine. A drug typically used to treat heart-related conditions and when used by athletes can aid them with performing for longer times with a high heart rate. After further review, it was determined that due to her status as a minor she was allowed to compete and the team’s win was determined valid.  China also was said to have violated human rights in Tibet which included genocide and led to America not sending any government officials over to Beijing for this year’s Olympics. Additionally, many athletes accused China of being bad hosts of this year’s Olympics and there were complaints from several of the athletes. Valerie Vasnetsova a biathlete from Russia who caught covid along with a number of other athletes had complaints about the food and boarding that was provided. She also questioned why other non-athlete personnel working at the Olympics were being served nutritious food. Overall this year’s Olympics was one for the books not only because of the performance of the athletes but for the complicated circumstances.