Vancouver Olympics Medals: 1st Awarded US Gold Medal
February 14th, 2010
Vancouver Olympics medals: 1st Awarded US Gold Medal was given out today. The Vancouver winter Olympics 2010 got off to a tragic start with the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21 year old Georgian luger, but now people have moved on to the competition. The US has been awarded the first Gold of the 2010 winter games.
The medal went to Hannah Kearney of Vermont in the women’s moguls. She’s the first American to win a gold medal in this event since 1992, and she even beat out the favorite – Canadian Jennifer Heil.
The win wasn’t even close, as Kearney shut out her Canadian runner up with a score of 26.63 to 25.69. For those unfamiliar with the sport: the winner is usually determined by the hundredths of points.
Hannah Kearney competed in the 2006 games, and was devastated after coming in 22 after a 30 second run gone terribly wrong. The thing about the Olympics that makes it so exciting is that even though someone could be seen as the best in their sport, they could experience bad luck during the competition and could walk away in last place.
Jennifer Heil went before Kearney, giving her the advantage of knowing that she was going to have to give the competition her all if she wanted the gold. In previous competitions, she avoided flipping – but did so in today’s competition.
So now that she’s won the gold medal she’s ecstatic – and she should be. She’s the first of what we hope to be many Americans to walk away with a gold medal.
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