Tepid U.S. medal count belies high number of near-podium finishes

Team USA has gotten off to a sluggish start at PyeongChang 2018, and if its athletes don't begin to rack up podium finishes soon, many will view these two-plus weeks as a disastrous outing for the country.

After all, in terms of all-time Winter Olympic medals, the United States ranks second only to Norway. American athletes are not only expected to show up in droves - they're expected to dominate.

That was the country's trajectory in Sochi four years ago. The U.S. was excelling 10 days into the festivities (albeit with a different competition schedule). By Day 10, the Americans were in a six-way tie with five gold medals, and their 18 total medals were tied with host Russia for the top spot.

The U.S. would end up finishing with the fourth-most golds (nine) and the second-most total medals (28) in Sochi.

This time around, with Russia weakened greatly due to its ongoing doping sanctions, there was reason to believe the U.S. could do even better in PyeongChang.

Alas, though the United States' current gold medal pace is on par with the previous games, its total medal count has lagged. Here are the updated standings as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Monday:

The golden glow from incredible first-week performances by Shaun White, Chloe Kim, and Red Gerard has largely subsided, replaced by bubbling disappointment from non-podium finishes by some of the States' other expected stars.

Among the medal hopefuls who missed out on hardware was cross-country skier Jessie Diggins - she came fifth in the 10-kilometer freestyle ski, fifth in the skiathlon, sixth in the classical-style sprint, and fifth in the 4x5-kilometer team event. Though a U.S. woman has never won an Olympic medal in cross-country, Diggins was seen as a major threat, but fell just short.

Nathan Chen, the United States' best chance at a gold in men's figure skating, finished fifth, and was followed immediately by countryman Vincent Zhou in sixth. Chen will have to settle for the bronze he won in the less-esteemed team event, along with the knowledge that he and Zhou will be strong favorites to medal in Beijing four years from now.

Alpine star Mikaela Shiffrin's recent dominance on the world skiing circuit led some pundits to toy with the possibility of the 22-year-old completing a five-for-five gold medal sweep, but after starting her time in South Korea with a gold medal in giant slalom, Shiffrin came fourth in the slalom and later withdrew from the super-G and downhill events. She still has Alpine combined on her slate, but Shiffrin's reduced medal potential has already been labeled a disappointment when held up against her astronomical expectations.

Starting to see a trend?

American athletes are not missing the podium by much. In fact, the U.S. has already finished in fourth, fifth, or sixth place a total of 24 times in medal events, notes Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg. With a couple lucky bounces, a cleaner landing, and a tighter turn here or there, the U.S. would have been right back on its usual pace.

Still, Americans have actually had great success at PyeongChang 2018 - just not at a level high enough to meet the Olympics' arbitrary top-three-get-a-prize threshold for official success.

Is there a meaningful difference between the third- and fourth-place finisher? Not really; neither the bronze medalist nor the fourth-place finisher was the judged to be best, fastest, or strongest competitor in their field.

That's not to denigrate the immense achievements of the silver and bronze medalists. But instead of bemoaning the States' tepid overall medal count so far, embrace those who've medaled - and stop lamenting those who fell short. Merely competing in the Olympics is an achievement worth celebrating. Allowing the States' lack of second- and third-place finishes to taint the appreciation of its athletes' collective efforts is myopic.