(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Germany has the most golds, the Dutch came out of nowhere and those countries, plus Norway, Russia, Canada and the United States, will fight for the next week to win the 2014 medal count. For The Win examined the count and found seven interesting things to know entering the final week of the Sochi Games. (Medal stats current as of Sunday night.)
1. The United States is on pace for its worst Winter Olympics since 1988.
(USA TODAY Sports)
U.S. athletes have won the second-most medals in Sochi (16), but the team ranks seventh in the overall medal count (which is determined by golds). That would be the worst medal-count finish since 1988, when the USA ranked 9th. Those Calgary Games were the only time Americans have finished out of the medal-count top-five since 1968. There’s still plenty of time to change fortunes, however. (Though it will be hard to top the Vancouver total of nine golds and 37 medals.)
2. The Netherlands has as many medals in speed skating as every other nation has in all sports combined.
The Dutch dominated the oval. (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Dutch speedskaters have won 16 medals on the oval. (Five gold, five silver, 6 bronze.) That would be tied for first on the total medal count with the United States and Russia. The Dutch skating squad would be No. 2 in the official medal count, behind Germany.
3. The Dutch are doing this with a tiny delegation.
The Dutch team at the Opening Ceremony. (AP)
Every country with more than six medals in Sochi has over 100 athletes at the Games. Russia, the United States and Canada have 233, 230 and 221 athletes in Sochi, respectively. The Netherlands sent 41 athletes. Forty-one! Of the 26 countries to win medals so far, that’s the third-smallest delegation.
4. The Sochi Olympics will likely be the most global Winter Games ever.
Denis Ten of Kazakhstan won his nation’s first figure skating medal. (USA TODAY Sports Images)
There have been 26 different flags flown during medal ceremonies in Sochi, the same total as during the entire 2006 and 2010 Winter Games, which are tied for the record in the category. With 56 medal events down and 42 to go, it seems all but assured Sochi will go down as the global Games.
5. Germany leads in gold medals and could make a strange kind of history.
Germany’s two-man luge team celebrates gold. (USA TODAY Sports Images)
German athletes have won the most golds in Sochi (7) but the country ranks sixth in the overall medal count (three silvers and two bronze). In the 90-year history of the Winter Olympics, no gold-medal leader has ever finished worse than third in the overall medal count.
6. Poland won as many gold medals on Saturday (2) as it had in every previous Winter Olympics combined.
Zbigniew Brodka of Poland celebrates win in speedskating’s 1,500 meters. (USA TODAY Sports Images)
In addition to that staggering fact, this one also boggles the mind: Poland has four golds in Sochi. From 1976 through 2006, Poland won four total medals at the Winter Games.
7. Russia needs a strong second week to make history.
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Russia’s 16 medals are tied for second-most with the United States and one behind the Netherlands’ 17. No host nation has ever won the most medals at an Olympics since Norway in the 1994 Lillehammer Games. Canada was the last host nation to win the official medal count, taking the crown in Vancouver with its 14 golds.
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