Norway Rushes Ahead in Olympic Medal Count

Emily Wurdeman, Reporter

On February 9, 2018, in PyeongChang, South Korea, the 23rd winter Olympic Games had their opening ceremony.

There are 2,920 athletes from over 90 countries participating in the games, one of the largest olympics in history. The athletes will be competing in 102 events in 15 sports.

February 21st is the 12th day of the games (out of 17), and so far Norway is leading the medal count with 33 medals so far.

Norway’s 33 medals come from 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze. Their most recent gold medal comes from Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, as he slid across the finish line first in the men’s team sprint for cross country skiing. Marit Bjoergen has earned 4 of the countries medals so far – the most of any winter Olympian.

Bjoergen won a gold in the 4 x 5km relay, silver in the 7.5km + 7.5km skiathalon and bronze in both the 10km free and the ladies team spring free. She is one of only 109 athletes competing from Norway, yet they continue to dominate they games.

Germany has the second most amount of medals at the games so far, tallying 24 medals in total. 12 of them are gold, 7 silver, and 5 bronze.

Germany has earned six medals in luge, six in biathlon, and four in ski jump. Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz won the gold medal for the two person bobsled, making it the third gold medal won in luge for Germany in the 2018 games.

The United States has only won 16 medals so far, with 241 athletes competing. Lindsey Vonn failed to win gold in her last olympics, but Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins did. The pair won gold in the team sprint free (cross-country skiing), coming in less than .2 second before the Swedes.

Based on the last few days, it looks like the Norwegian team will continue to pull ahead in the medal count of the 2018 Winter Olympics, but with events such as Ice Hockey and Bobsleigh still to come, it is never too late for a surprise.