USA Wins First Gold Medal of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
February 11, 2018
It took one day but the US is finally on the board for medal count. It came during slopestyle Saturday afternoon when 17 year-old Red Gerard won gold in the snowboarding event followed by two Canadian riders taking home the silver and bronze. While the US is still a ways down the medal count board, they’re sure to rise up the standings this week, especially since they have their largest Winter Olympics team in US history, they have the third best odds (+400) to win the most medals at the games this year, and they almost always medal in snowboarding events, like slopestyle (fun fact: the US is the only country to ever win gold in slopestyle since it debuted at the 2014 games, where the US of course finished atop the podium. No big deal).
Personally, I’m very stoked to see that Red won. With Shaun White competing in his last Winter Olympics this year, USA Snowboarding will need a rider to be the face of the team, and it could very well be Red. On top of this, Red is also the youngest US Olympian to ever medal in a snowboarding event, so it’s safe to say that his Olympic career is already off to an absolutely electric start. Also, in all of his interviews Red sounds like your typical, laid back bro that you would meet on the chair at Breck (which is ironically where he’s from), so I definitely hope he continues to bring home more hardware. Or at least he can still keep giving us insane content from the park in his backyard in Colorado.
Don’t forget to stay locked to Tailgate Sports for all 2018 Winter Olympic coverage, reactions, hot takes, and previews for the can’t miss events of this year’s games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHYnyllqec
Written by Erik Clark
