Since 1924, the Winter Olympics has become a huge part of society with all the different winter sports it contains. This year the Olympics started on Friday, February 4th, and will end on Sunday, February 20th. As of 2022, the United States has won a breathtaking 2,633 medals total in the Olympics; 1,061 being gold, 832 being silver, and 740 being bronze. The Winter Olympics incorporates many amazing sports, some including Snowboarding, Ice Hockey, and FreeStyle Skiing.

Since 1998 snowboarding has become one of the most popular winter Olympic sports to date. One of the five new sports was added, also with 11 different snowboarding events for men and women. As of the 2022 snowboarding Olympics, the United States takes the lead with 3 gold medals, and 1 silver. The roots of snowboarding actually come from a combination of skiing, surfing, and skateboarding where the primary activity is sliding down a snow-filled mountain on a snowboard. 

Ice Hockey had an interesting introduction to the Olympics because it was welcome first to the summer Olympics in 1920, then transitioned over to the winter Olympics in 1924. NHL Stanley cup winners including Eric Staal, David Krejci, Valtteri Filppula, and Marcus Kruger are suiting up to play with the United States winter Olympic ice hockey. Ice Hockey is a game between two teams, each usually having six players, who wear ice skates and play on an ice skating rink trying to score a vulcanized rubber disk, past a goal line.

Seen in the Calgary Games, Free-Style skiing was first introduced in the Olympics in 1988 as a demonstration sport. There are six events held at the Olympics including aerials, moguls, ski cross, ski halfpipe, ski slopestyle, and big air. Sometimes you see in some of these events they will jump between 40-50 feet in the air. As of the 2022 freestyle skiing results the United States is in 2nd with 2 gold medals, 3 silver, and 1 bronze. Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen during the mid-1960s formed the first freestyle skiing instruction program in the Waterville Valley ski area, making it the birthplace of freestyle skiing. 

In 1924 16 nations known as the IOC went on to create one of the most enjoyable experiences. The Winter Olympics has continued to be one of the most entertaining multi-sport events we have to date. The United States has won a total of 2,633 medals, and as of the 2022 Olympics, we don’t plan on stopping there with an additional 21 with 8 of those being gold. As a result of us winning 21 medals in this year’s Olympics we are ranked 3rd in the world.