VANCOUVER — The Winter Olympics began with the death of a Georgian luger and ended with the epic clash of the United States and Canada in yesterday’s hockey final.
In between, there was drama, crashes, unforgettable performances and rain — lots of rain. Here’s a look at the winners and losers of the Vancouver Olympics:
WINNERS
THE UNITED STATES — Even with yesterday’s hockey loss that resulted in a silver, the Americans earned 37 medals at these Olympics, a record.
The Winter Olympics once were the domain of the Soviet Union and Scandinavian countries. At these Olympics, though, the Americans won medals in everything from snowboarding to Nordic combined.
CANADA — The host country got off to a rough start and took some abuse about its aspiration to “own the podium.” A late charge, capped by yesterday’s dramatic hockey win, made these Olympics a smashing success for the Canucks.
The hockey gold brought the total to 14 for Canada — a Winter Olympics record.
JOANNIE ROCHETTE — The Canadian figure skater did not win gold, but delivered the most unforgettable performance of these Olympics.
Skating two days after her mother’s death, Rochette had an entire arena and nation behind her. She skated beautifully in her short program, then broke down in tears when she finished. Two days later, she did it again in the free skate and walked away with the bronze medal and millions of admirers.
U.S. SKI TEAM —When did we become the United States of Austria? The men and women of the U.S. team dominated the slopes, piling up eight medals, including two gold.
Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso all delivered multiple medal performances and made Whistler Mountain worth traveling to.
APOLO OHNO — The short-track speedskater became the most decorated Winter Olympian in U.S. history. He won three medals here, bringing his career total to eight.
LOSERS
THE IOC — These humorless folks get beat up at every Olympics, but the Vancouver Games was a particularly bad moment for them.
From the poor decision to put the Olympics in a city whose climate was too warm and wet to properly hold snow events to their defense of the deadly luge track, they came across as tone deaf. The decision to race the day after the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was especially galling.
VANOC — The Vancouver Organizing Committee had a rough few weeks. The Olympics began with the tragedy at Whistler Sliding Center and questions about its safety. Weather caused chaos for the alpine skiing schedule. They had to turn away people who bought tickets for snowboarding because the venue became a muddy mess.
LINDSEY JACOBELLIS — This was supposed to be the U.S. snowboarder’s shot at redemption. Instead, it just added to her reputation as a clueless brat.
Jacobellis went off course during the snowboardcross race and did not finish. She then blew off the media. This, four years after she hot-dogged her way out of a gold medal.
U.S. CURLERS — Curling is mesmerizing, as tons of CNBC viewers learned. There’s an everyman quality about the sport — call it Canadian bowling — that makes it appealing.
That is, unless Americans are playing it. The U.S. men’s team won bronze in Turin, but could not get out of pool play this time. Both the American men’s and women’s teams finished dead last.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY — This sport is in serious jeopardy of getting bounced from the Olympics, just like softball has in the Summer Games.
Other than the United States and Canada, no one is any good at it. The opening round featured a ton of blowouts. Then the entertaining final between Americans and Canadians was overshadowed by the controversy over the Canadian women’s on-ice celebration featuring beer and cigars.
THE RUSSIANS —Remember when the Soviet Union owned the Winter Olympics? Those days ended when communism fell.
The Russians had a rough Olympics, four years before they host the Sochi Games. They ended up with 15 medals, down from 22 in Turin.
Eight of those medals came in two sports — biathlon and cross country — and they suffered embarrassing losses in hockey and figure skating.
brian.costello@nypost.com
