Wednesday was a good day for the U.S. of A.
American athletes took six medals on Wednesday, including golds for women’s downhill, men’s 1,000-meter speedskating and men’s snowboard halfpipe. That’s a U.S. record for a medals in a single day of the Winter Olympics, passing up the five medals in a day, including three golds, that set the previous record at Salt Lake in 2002.
“It’s an unbelievable feat and for us to be a part of it is an honor,” said Chad Hedrick, who scored a bronze in the speedskating competition. “I’m proud to be an American. I’m proud to represent my country. We work hard to have the people in their living room watching us be proud.”
We can be particularly proud of Lindsey Vonn, who slipped past her team mate Julia Mancuso despite a crippling shin injury Vonn suffered the injury during training: “It’s essentially a deep muscle bruise, so I have a contusion. So the muscle is bleeding and it’s really deep inside the muscle,” she told Matt Lauer on the Today Show. But what Vonn described as “excruciating pain” didn’t stop Vonn from crushing her competition in a rocket fueled 1:44:19 trip down the mountain. She swears she had so much adrenaline, she couldn’t feel a thing.
Meanwhile snowboarder Shaun White was on the half pipe, pulling off moves that no one else on the mountain would or could even attempt. He was so far ahead that his final run was just a victory dance – he had already won the gold. White didn’t take already having his medal as an excuse to slake off though. He ended his victory run with a groundbreaking “Double McTwist 1260.” A double flip done while completing three and a half revolutions. Yeah. He’s that good.
There are more medal opportunities on the horizon today for the United States with Vonn skiing again and women’s snowboard pipe firing up, as well as men’s figure skating continuing into the free skate round. And America seems to be hooked on the rings – Olympic coverage beat “American Idol” in the ratings Wednesday night, making yesterday the very first time that the countries most popular TV show has EVER been surpassed in viewership.
