As of Feb. 20, Norway leads the world in total medal count with 29 metals, 11 gold, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The other top three nations are Germany with 23 total metals, 11 gold, and Canada with 19 total metals, eight gold. The United States just barely misses out on the top five list placing sixth in the world with 12 total metals.

These Winter Olympics have been been standard for the most part, yet some events and athletes have made this year an Olympics to remember. For example the American freestyle skier who is nothing like the standard hardcore, dedicated athlete usually seen at both Olympics, or any other international sports competition for that matter. Elizabeth Swaney’s skiing is, no insult to her, average, so she had to use some unorthodox methods of making her dreams come true. By unorthodox, this means avoiding the fierce competition of the US team and going to Venezuela and later Hungary instead. By not crashing and successfully completing the required events, with some luck from the system, Swaney qualified for women’s halfpipe skiing.

Another awe inspiring event was the crash of German bobsledders Nico Walther and Christian Poser that ended up in first place. To put it simply, Walther engaged an aggressive line and put his head down to reduce drag, making it to where he was effectively steering blind. This caused the pair to tip over sideways into the wall of the ice track knocking their heads into it. However their bobsled still managed to make it to the finish line.

These Olympics are especially special for its host country, South Korea and its neighbor, North Korea. The two Koreas are ethnically and historically identical with the only splits between the peoples today is two opposing economic and governmental ideologies.These two factors have kept the countries in animosity for 68 years. However this year the two Koreas are unifying, somewhat, by creating a joint Korean women’s hockey team. This team finished winless, but the crowd still cheered for the team.

The United States advanced in a game with Slovakia in men’s hockey with a US winning five to one on Feb. 19. French skier Martin Fourcade set Frances gold metal record after winning the mixed Biathlon on Feb. 20. Earlier in the week famous snowboarder Shaun White won a gold metal by performing a jaw dropping halfpipe run.