Well, for the US Olympians:
The Good:
2nd only to Germany in number of medals won
Apollo Ohno won 3 medals, only the 2nd Winter Olympian to do so since Eric Heiden; has won 5 in 2 Olympics the only one to do so since Heiden (who won his 5 in one Olympics)
Sasha Cohen coming back from 2 falls to win Silver and being gracious over it
Joey Cheek (my favorite) winning 2 medals and donating the $40,000 to charity which the Olympic Committee will now match
Shawn White 'The Flying Tomato' who was so energetic and happpy
Shani Davis being the first African-American (the first black period) to win Individual Gold in a Winter Olympics and also, obviously, being the first AA male to win any medal. Vonetta Flowers won the first in Salt Lake but that was in the 2 man bobsled
Belbin & Agosto winning the first dancing medal in 30 years and only the 2nd one period
Emily Hughes & Kimmie Meissner who so throughly enjoyed their first Olympics and show some real promise for the future
The first US medal in curling!
Kimberly Derrick pulling herself together to compete, even though she came in last, when her 'biggest fan' her grandfather, collapsed and died at the Olympics
The Bad
Michelle Kwan being forced to withdraw
some events we were favored to medal in that we didn't, especially in skiing
Sasha Cohen's falls which kept her from the Gold which her program, IMO, would've won her the gold
Lindsey Jacobellis's showboating which cost her a medal
The choice of when to air major events (which I understand but still) which led to most finding out the results before they aired and consequently lower ratings; they need to come up with a better plan
Johnny Weir's diva behavior where he tossed blame for his loss everywhere but on himself unlike Sasha & Irina
The Ugly:
Bode Miller's 0-5 Olympics and, more especially his incredibly obnoxious behavior--saying he still 'rocked' because he got to party
The Hedrick-Davis feud which overshadowed their accomplishments (and those of some other, more well-behaved compatriots) and was just embarrassing
The behavior of commentators who basically took the attitude towards Sasha (and Irina) that 'you don't win silver (or bronze), you lose gold' to borrow the old Nike Olympic motto--they were among the few held to this standard, bronze and silver were treated fine for other US Olympians
The same commentators who acted like the US Olympians bombed because they didn't repeat the huge medal haul of Salt Lake (which was the first Winter Olympics we had done well in--hello short memory)
There was tons to celebrate all around in terms of athletes from other countries but I'm not familiar with most, especially how to spell name :-/ to be a good commentator so I stuck to the US. Congrats though to all those Olympians who won medals, and more, importantly represented their countries well and proudly whether or not they medalled.
