All you need to know about Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Team USA brought 242 athletes to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics that began on Feb. 8. This is more athletes than any other nation, and the most diverse in race and gender of any U.S. team to ever compete.
Team USA comprises of 108 women, 10 African-Americans, 11 Asian-Americans and the first two openly gay athletes, skier Gus Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon.
“It’s going to be a different experience than last time around at the Olympics because I’m not in the closet,” said Kenworthy in an interview with Ellen Degeneres. “It’s incredible to see how times have changed because of athletes in the past and so many people that have paved the way.”
During the opening ceremony, luge veteran Erin Hamlin led the team as the flag bearer. She is the fourth luger in Team USA history to do so.
Of the team, there are five athletes coming to defend their Olympic gold medals they won at the Sochi Winter Games of 2014. These athletes include Jamie Anderson (snowboarding slopestyle); Maddie Bowman (freestyle skiing halfpipe); Ted Ligety (alpine skiing giant slalom); Mikaela Shiffrin (alpine skiing slalom); and David Wise (freestyle skiing halfpipe).
Jamie Anderson has won eight medals at the X Games and gold at the Sochi Games in slopestyle.
In addition to winning a gold medal in halfpipe skiing at Sochi, Maddie Bowman has stood on the podium in seven consecutive Winter X Games.
Shaun White is competing for his third Olympic gold medal. In the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy and the 2010 Game in Vancouver, Canada, he won gold in the men’s halfpipe. In the Olympic qualifiers this year, White scored a perfect 100 points.
The U.S. women’s hockey team will play on Feb. 15 against Canada in order to break the Canadians’ streak of winning gold medals 20 years in a row. In the last four years, Team USA has finished with silver, bronze, silver and another silver, not winning gold since the first year of Olympic women’s hockey in 1998.
The NHL prohibited its players from participating in the games, so Team USA is composed of a 25-player roster of college players, American Hockey Leaguers, and Americans playing professionally in Europe.
Boston University athlete Jordan Greenway is the first African-American to step on the ice as a member of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team.
“I’m the first African-American to play hockey for the United States at the Olympics but hopefully I’m the first of many,” Greenway said in an interview with The Root. “Hopefully, these kids go out, try something different, play hockey and hopefully I see a lot more playing in the near future.”
To follow Team USA as they compete for gold, NBC has provided a live broadcast that marks the first time people of all the U.S. time zones can watch. Visit nbcolympics.com.
