The final medal count for the United States at the Pyeongchang games was 23, putting them fourth on the leader board. Norway scored a whopping 39 medals to easily outdistance all the national teams — that’s a record total by the way. The 23 for the United States was the fewest since the 1998 games. Interestingly the 9 gold medals the team won is the same amount that they won in the last games but they were down in the silver and bronze. After a disastrous first week of competition the USA team bounced back with a much better performance in the second week with 13 medals including the incredible gold medal by the dark horse USA curling team and the U.S. Women beating the Canadian Women for the Hockey Gold Medal! The host country South Korea scored a very respectable 17 medals including 5 gold to finish 6th in total.
Lindsay Vonn went into the games as the “face” of the American team did win a bronze but she was disappointed in her overall performance. Nathan Chen was the USA hope in men’s figure skating and skated well but could only finish fourth because of brilliant performances by the top three medal winners.
The USA Olympic Committee is going to investigate what happened to the US team at the games. To me it looks as if they over-estimated the abilities of the US team and seriously underestimated the abilities of the other teams.
NFL Combine Starts at Lucas Oil
Tuesday The National Football League met in Indianapolis to conduct the Combine, where the top 300 college athletes eligible for the 2018 NFL College Draft get together to strut their stuff for the 32 general managers, coaches, and scouts of the various NFL teams along with the media. The week long parade of meat will include speed, strength, and agility drills along with running, catching, and throwing exercises. There will be written tests and face-to-face interviews with team representatives for the potential draftees.
This can be a chance for potential players to catch the interest of teams and increase their status and improve their draft position, cement their status as top prospects, or blow their reputation and drop in status with a disappointing performance.
Indianapolis gets the nod for this event because of its central location in the country and it’s economical costs to conduct the event.
The Colts have the third pick in the draft. They are said to be looking at defensive edge rusher Bradley Chubb of North Carolina State and Penn State running back Saquon Barkley. Chubb was considered the outstanding senior defender in college football. From Marietta, Georgia, he is listed as 6’ 4’ and 275 lbs. Barkley is a junior from the Bronx, New York City, and is listed at 5’ 11” and 233 lbs. Many believe him to be the top player available in the draft. The Colts need help on both sides of the ball and either of these two players would help tremendously.
There will be a great deal of talent available for all the teams to consider this week at Lucas Oil Stadium.