Do the other countries hand out participation trophies?
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) – Having fallen way short of their Olympic medal target, the U.S. team said on Sunday it would take a hard look at what went wrong in South Korea, and a long look at who fared well.
With only a couple of events to go, the U.S. tally of 23 was way short of the 37 they had targeted, and represents their worst showing in 20 years.
Not since their 13 medals at Nagano in 1998 had a U.S. team left a Games with such slim pickings.
Their 23 here, including nine golds, saw the United States in fourth place in the standings at the beginning of the final day, behind Norway, Germany and Canada.
“Yeah, you know we always want to do better and I want them to do better because I want that to be a reflection of what they’re capable of because it’s an amazing team,” said U.S. chef de mission Alan Ashley.
”We’re going to look at the other countries, (and ask), ‘What are they doing?’. One of the things I‘m curious about is that Norway had a runaway success here and they really did a great job preparing their athletes and I really admire them for that.