The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics contained all the excitement, heartbreak and pride necessary to make it an instant classic. Now that one of the most successful and ground−breaking Winter Olympics of all−time has drawn to a close on Sunday, the Daily takes a look ahead at the 2014 Olympics, to be held in Sochi, Russia.
The Russians were one of the biggest disappointments of Vancouver, finishing with an abysmal three gold medals — only one more than Australia — and 15 total medals, one behind Austria. What's more, Russia failed to win a gold medal in men's figure skating or in the pairs skating, for the first time since 1988 and 1960, respectively. That, coupled with the disappointing egg laid by the Alexander Ovechkin−led men's hockey team in the quarterfinals, prompted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to call for the resignation of all trainers and coaches associated with the country's Olympic team.
Simply put, one of the most dominant Winter Olympics countries — Russia, the Soviet Union at the time, finished with the most medals seven times and came in second twice between 1956 and 1988 — was in shambles at the end of Vancouver, and the pressure will be on the home country to succeed in 2014. And it all starts with hockey and figure skating.
The spotlight will certainly be on Ovechkin, who scored two goals in an early win over Latvia but disappeared for the rest of the tournament, in addition to figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, who was dramatically upset by American Evan Lysacek. For a country looking to vault onto the global social and cultural scale, returning to Olympic glory will be a start in Sochi.
While Russia was arguably the most surprising letdown in Vancouver, host Canada's sweeping success, the best ever for a host country, gives it momentum heading into the future. And it all began with Sunday's gold medal hockey game.
Against the United States, Canada avenged its earlier loss when Sidney Crosby struck the game−winning goal in overtime past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller, giving the Canadians a 3−2 win and setting off a raucous celebration in Vancouver. But Canada's 14 overall gold medals stole the show at the Olympics as a whole.
The Canadians won gold in events ranging from bobsled to curling, from freestyle skiing to ice dancing. They took first in short−track speedskating, skeleton and snowboarding. And of course, there was the hockey gold in both women's and men's.
Even though Canada boisterously kicked off the Olympics on a rocky note amid controversy surrounding the nation's practice of barring foreign athletes from practicing on Olympic facilities and its plan to "own the podium," the winter games ended on a perfect note for the host country.
While Canada owned the gold medal standings, the United States took first in the overall count by a sweeping margin, out−distancing second−place Germany by seven overall medals. Apolo Anton Ohno became the most decorated American Winter Olympian ever. Shaun White continued to dominate the halfpipe in snowboarding, and Lindsey Vonn tore up the slopes despite a bevy of injuries.
But there are two specific athletes to watch who could be the future of American Olympics in Sochi. Aside from the surprising men's hockey team, which has nine players born in 1985 or later, the United States could see up−and−coming stars J.R. Celski and Mirai Nagasu emerge on the national stage in Russia in four years.
Celski, who finished with a bronze medal in the men's 1,500−meter short track final and also took home third in the 5,000−meter relay, is a 19−year−old future star touted as being the next Ohno. And why not? Celski finished less than a second behind Ohno in the 1,500 and was instrumental in giving Ohno the bronze in the relay.
Nagasu, born in 1993, burst onto the figure−skating scene with a fourth−place finish in the women's singles, racking up 190.15 total points to finish fewer than 12 points out of the medal, a strong position considering she was up against perennial powerhouses Kim Yu−Na of South Korea and Japan's Mao Asada. What's more, her consistent performance — Nagasu finished fifth in the free skate and sixth in the short program — makes her the female athlete to watch for the United States in 2014.
Possibly the most intriguing story line in Sochi will not occur in the mountains or on the ice. The Georgian Olympic team will use the Russian games to make a political point, as Sochi is just 20 miles from the border of a Georgian region that was occupied by Russian troops after Moscow invaded in 2008. According to a statement the Georgian team released, approximately 5,000 Russian soldiers currently remain in the region of Abkhazia, in a "violation of a ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and Georgia … More than 350,000 Georgian citizens have been forced to flee their homes."
These pertinent issues, coupled with the rising American and Canadian stars and the inevitable determination of Russia to become athletically relevant again, could make Sochi even more riveting than Vancouver.
