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The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada is just around the corner.  With a shaky U.S. team some wonder whether the American teams will still be a dominant force in the upcoming competitions.

 

by Nate Evens and Andy Robillard

Evans:

        The United States has always been known to bring some of the best competition to both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. In the Winter Olympics, however, our competitive edge may be getting dull.

        America’s powerhouse status may start to fade in the upcoming games. Though it has placed in the top three for overall medals during the course of the Winter Olympics, the United States risks giving up its comfortable 32-medal lead over Austria.

        With a powerful team capable of upsetting the overall medal standings, Austria will be one of the most feared countries. Other powerful winter-sport teams such as Germany will be close behind, and with the dominant Norwegian team with a large medal lead in the overall standings, it is unlikely that the U.S. will maintain its powerhouse status much longer.

        Countries such as Norway, Germany, Austria and Sweden all amount to threat teams this year. With combinations of young and powerful athletes as well as older more experienced ones, these teams will be able to compete for the gold in nearly every event.

Robillard:

        The United States has its most stacked team in recent Winter Olympics.  With a powerhouse snowboarding team and speed skaters that can shut down South Koreans, Americans will not only be raking in the medals, but the medals will most likely be gold.

        Both Shaun White and Hannah Teter are coming off of gold medals from the 2006 halfpipe competitions in Torino.  At the age of 19 Teter added a gold medal to her impressive resume containing a 2004 X Games title and a bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships.

        White, also 19 at the time, was favored to win gold in Torino but faltered in the early rounds.  What separates him from the rest of the field is that he came back with a clutch performance to put himself in the medal rounds, and then posted a dominant score of 46.8 points in the first run of the final round, a score that secured his spot at the top of the podium. 

Evans:

        Your view simply expresses a strong sense of patriotism rather than a complete perspective. Though the American team has been strong in the past the facts show little promise for success this year. With a devastating injury to America’s top figure skater Sasha Cohen, for example, the chances of America placing in the top three for that event are slim.

        The U.S. has many very talented individuals such as Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, but they still are not as internationally hailed as Austria’s Felix Gottwald and Norway’s Magnus Moan.

        These internationally acclaimed athletes along with many others like them will be tough competition at the Olympic Games.

        In addition to the powerful competition the U.S. will also have to deal with a loss of sponsors. Some former Olympic sponsors either cannot support teams this year because of the economy or other reasons.

        This still leaves a note of doubt on whether the U.S. Winter Olympic Team can deliver stellar results this February.

Robillard:

        Along with the snowboarding competitors there’s speed skater Shani Davis who is coming off of a silver medal in the 1500m in Torino, and a gold medal in the 1000m.  Davis just won the World Cup in Berlin in the 1000m by setting the course record, defeating Yevgeny Lalenkov of Russia and Mun Joon of South Korea.

        Though some sponsors may have bailed on the U.S. winter team, Stephen Colbert has stepped up and become the primary sponsor of the U.S. Speedskating Team.

        Colbert is calling for donations from his fans to help sponsor one of the most dominant teams the U.S. has ever offered.

        On the short and long tracks Americans have won an overall of 75 medals, 32 of the medals are gold.

                With young and promising athletes and fresh sponsorships from a true patriot the U.S. Winter Olympic team will be an unstoppable force in Vancouver.