Sports executives in America targeted Team USA to win 37 medals at the Pyeongchang Games in a meeting with the U.S. Olympic Committee last year.
Heading into the final 48 hours of action, the United States had 21. Even if things were to go well over the handful of remaining events, the team will fall more than 10 medals short of the goal.
The USOC’s chief of sport performance, Alan Ashley, acknowledged the 2018 team will not reach its goal, while also saying “we’re doing fine.”
“I look at it and I go, ‘OK, medals are one story, but if you look at the depth of everything that’s going on, and the number of people who are fourth and fifth place, and the commitment level and intensity of the athletes, you can’t ask for more than that,” Ashley told AP.
Heading into Friday night’s action, 21 U.S. teams or athletes — including Mikaela Shiffrin , Nathan Chen and Lindsey Jacobellis — had finished fourth or fifth in their events, which accounts for part of the gap between expectations and reality.
Lindsey Vonn was one of the Americans with the most medal potential. She finished third in the downhill, tied for sixth in the super-G and DNF in the combined.Â
“The expectation of winning gold medals is pretty out of whack and I think we need to be proud of all of our athletes for how much they’ve sacrificed and put in to be here,” she said. “Medals — they’re not necessarily what the Olympics are all about. … To quantify it in how many medals you have is not appropriate and doesn’t respect the athletes and what they’ve put in to be in these games.”
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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