The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, are at an end. For some, that means regularly scheduled programming returns to network television. For American winter athletes, it means their time to shine on the world stage is over until 2018.
Here’s a look at the United States’ biggest winners and losers at these games.
WINNERS
Mikaela Shiffrin
Move over, Lindsey Vonn. The 18-year-old emerged as America’s new Alpine skiing star when she earned gold in the slalom, becoming the youngest to do so.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White
Davis and White earned the first-ever U.S. gold in ice dance and added bronze as part of the first edition of Olympic team skate.
Noelle Pikus-Pace
The smiley mother of two narrowly missed a medal in skeleton in Vancouver four years ago but was thrilled to capture silver in Sochi.
Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton
The pair put a halt to a 62-year U.S. medal drought in two-man bobsled, taking home bronze. They also earned bronze as part of the four-man team.
Bode Miller
The 36-year-old nearly ended up on the wrong end of this list after finishing a disappointing eighth in the downhill, but held on to claim bronze — his U.S. career-record sixth Alpine skiing medal — in the super-G.
LOSERS
Individual figure skaters
This is the first time since 1936 that the U.S. failed to medal in either men’s or ladies’ individual skating. On the bright side, Jason Brown, 19, and Gracie Gold, 18, should be in the mix at the next games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Shaun White
First, the snowboarder pulled out of the debuting slopestyle event to focus on his specialty, the halfpipe. Then, White couldn’t overcome the sloppy pipe and finished out of the medals after winning gold at the last two games.
Shani Davis
The speedskater had a strong chance to medal in a third consecutive Olympics in both the 1,000 and 1,500, but didn’t finish better than eighth. He wasn’t alone; the U.S. failed to medal in long track for the first time in 30 years.
Ice hockey
The women held a 2-0 lead on Canada with four minutes to go — 2-1 with a minute remaining — and gold on the line, but wound up losing in overtime and settling for silver. The men didn’t medal, but that wasn’t a total shock.
