Team USA’s Medal Tally at Beijing 2022 Is a Rerun of Pyeongchang 2018

There were a lot of obstacles here for Team USA, including the location in Asia, where U.S. teams typically struggle. After flying halfway around the world from Omicron-infested regions, using burner phones and being fenced into their Olympic Villages, the U.S. wound up with a virtual rerun of its overall performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, when it won 23 medals. 

The U.S. entered the final day of competition tied with Germany for fourth place in overall medals with 24, far behind first-place Norway, with 35, as usual. The U.S. also lagged far behind its all-time high of 37 medals at a Winter Games from 2010 Vancouver, which was geographically almost a home Olympics.

Team USA also found itself surprisingly behind the Chinese hosts in the gold-medal tally. Late Saturday, China won the pairs figure skating event to take a 9-8 lead.

The swing factor, of course, was freestyle skier Eileen Gu’s decision to compete for China, her mother’s homeland, rather than for the U.S., where she was born and still lives. Gu won golds in big air and halfpipe, and silver in slopestyle, while walking a tightrope of political tensions between the nations. (The U.S. gained one gold with the nationality switch of bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, who left Canada.)

On the plus side, Team USA produced robust medal hauls in freestyle skiing, figure skating, snowboarding and speedskating. 

Brittany Bowe didn’t just win bronze in 1,000-meter speedskating. Her decision to give her spot in the 500 meters to teammate Erin Jackson after Jackson slipped at the U.S. trials, was also a shrewd move. Jackson won the gold in the 500 in Beijing, becoming the first Black woman from any country to win individual gold at the Winter Olympics.

Americans reasserted their prowess in freestyle skiing, winning a whopping eight medals in the discipline. U.S. men grabbed two of the three podium spots in slopestyle and halfpipe events. Nick Goepper in the slopestyle and David Wise in the halfpipe each won their third medal in three Olympics. 

Chloe Kim reinstated herself as the snowboard halfpipe queen, breezing past the competition for a second Olympic gold. Lindsey Jacobellis won gold in the snowboard cross, a record 16 years after taking silver and hot-dogging away the gold in Torino.

Meanwhile in cross-country skiing, Jessie Diggins nabbed bronze in the women’s sprint free, single-handedly defending against the skiing battalions of Norway. 

In men’s figure skating, Nathan Chen overcame his disappointing performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics to nail both his short and long programs and grasp the gold in Beijing. 

The U.S. won silver in the figure skating team event, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue added a bronze in ice dancing.

It hardly mattered that the U.S. women again finished out of the medals in figure skating, continuing a streak that started after Sasha Cohen won silver in 2006, given the grim circumstances of the contenders in Beijing. 

Gold-medal favorite Kamila Valieva of Russia bobbled her way to a fourth-place finish after the 15-year-old’s failed drug test from December surfaced during the Games—and an appeals court cleared her to compete because of her age. Russian 17-year-olds Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, who share Valieva’s controversial coach, won gold and silver, respectively. 

Team USA suffered disappointments. The U.S. alpine ski team won just one individual medal, tying its fewest since 1998. Star Mikaela Shiffrin won none, skidding out of three of her five events.  

The men’s hockey team, whose NHL firepower was yanked away at the last minute, lost in the quarterfinals. The women lost to Canada 3-2 in the final, taking silver. 

The U.S. men’s curling team failed to reprise its gold-medal run of four years ago, finishing fourth. Team leader John Shuster said he hoped to be back in 2026, but added, “You don’t just get put in the Olympics for the United States—you have to win your way there.” 

China’s tough Covid-19 protocols, including daily testing and other restrictions, were difficult for everyone, but ultimately were less disruptive then they could have been.

Out of a U.S. delegation of about 570, including a roster of 222 athletes, three athletes tested positive for Covid in Beijing. Only one, figure skater Vincent Zhou, missed competition. He had competed in the team event, and was set to perform in the post-competition gala Sunday.  

Meyers-Taylor, the bobsledder, was elected an opening ceremony flag-bearer for Team USA but had to miss the honor because of her Covid isolation. Her teammates rewarded her perseverance—and performance, which included a bronze in the two-woman bobsled Saturday night—with another vote, sending her to carry the flag in Sunday’s closing ceremony.

– Jim Chairusmi contributed to this article.

Write to Rachel Bachman at Rachel.Bachman@wsj.com