Russia, With Home-Field Advantage, Wins Sochi Medal Race

[Luke Skywalker]

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hide captionRussia RUS-1 bobsled team, with Alexander Zubkov, Alexey Negodaylo, Dmitry Trunenkov, and Alexey Voevoda, jump onto the medal stand after winning gold on Sunday. On the last day of the Sochi Games, Russia had already secured the top spot in the overall medal count.

Dita Alangkara/AP
Russia RUS-1 bobsled team, with Alexander Zubkov, Alexey Negodaylo, Dmitry Trunenkov, and Alexey Voevoda, jump onto the medal stand after winning gold on Sunday. On the last day of the Sochi Games, Russia had already secured the top spot in the overall medal count.
Dita Alangkara/AP

Just two medals remain to be awarded at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as Canada and Sweden face off on the hockey ice. If the Canadian men take gold, Canada will have swept all four traditional team sports. Canadian teams have already won gold in men's and women's curling and women's ice hockey.
Regardless of the hockey, host-nation Russia has won the medals race, securing a total of 33 (13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze).
Purists will say the Olympics is really all about individual sporting achievement, but for the national Olympic committees, medal counts do matter. And for Russia, this haul has to be a point of pride — even if the men's hockey team failed to make it to the medal round.
This is the fourth time the host nation of an Olympics has emerged victorious in the medal count, making a strong case for the idea of home field advantage (U.S. in 1932; Norway in 1952 and Canada in 2010). Athletes in Sochi couldn't help but be motivated by the deafening chants of "Russ-ee-ahhh" in every arena and mountain venue.
A Spectacular Bobsled Crash
Team USA ended up with 28 medals (9 gold, 7 silver and 12 bronze), including a bronze secured Sunday by Steve Holcomb and his four-man bobsled team. The team just barely beat out Russia's second bobsled team by .03 seconds. Holcomb also won bronze earlier in the games in two-man bobsled.
In the second heat of the bobsled race Saturday night, the Canadian bobsled Team 3 piloted by Justin Kripps came into a curve too early and crashed spectacularly, flipping the sled and sliding through several remaining curves on its side. Everyone walked away from the crash and was checked out by doctors. You can see the dramatic video here.
"I'd be lying if I said that one didn't hurt," Kripps tweeted out after the crash. "Thanks for all the support; we were laying it all out there.