The winter Olympics came to a close on Sunday, February 23 with an amazing show of fireworks that lit up the sky and left everyone in the stadium in awe.

Russia’s 51 billion dollar investment seemed to really pay off, with no terrorist threats since the winter games started, and a close to flawless ending ceremony which lit up the sky with fireworks and brought many countries together.

Russia, this year’s host for the Olympics, brought its country great pride by winning the most medals, with 33 medals in total including an amazing 13 gold medals, 11 silver and 9 bronze.  The Russians seemed to be on their game the whole time. However, Team USA was in the fight the entire way, with 28 total medals, 9 of them gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze. Norway took third in the medal count with a total of 26, 11 being gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze.

Team USA Gold Medalists were:

Freestyle Skiing: David Wise, Maddie Bowman, Joss Christensen

Snowboard: Sage Kotsenburg, Jamie Anderson, Kaitlyn Farring

Alpine Skiing: Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin

Figure Skating Pairs: Meryl Davis, Charlie White

Half-pipe snowboarding really grabbed my attention this year because two time gold medalist Shaun White, the most mentioned athlete on Facebook, competed in the event. I really thought he could take home the gold, but instead he left medal-less and disappointed just like the rest of America.

The sport, however, was interesting and had me on my seat every time Team USA was up to compete. White took fourth in this event. But who knows? There is always hope for the next winter games, which will take place in Pyeongchang, Korea in 2018.