2010 Olympics U.S. Medal Count: Remembering All 37 Winners

Prior to both the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics, the American media proclaimed that the U.S. was sending its best team ever to a Winter Olympics.

In 2002 the team met those expectations, in 2006 it did not.

But the 2010 U.S. Olympic team turned out to be the best of all, in fact the best Winter Olympic team from any nation in history. Not even NBC saw that one coming.

The U.S won a Winter Olympic record 37 medals in Vancouver and needed every single one to top Germany's haul of 36 in 2002. In the process the Americans led the overall medal table for the first time in 78 years.

This slide show is a tribute to each of those 37 medals.

Day Two: Apolo Anton Ohno: Silver- 1500 Meters Short Track

With five Olympic medals already to his credit, it was only fitting that Apolo Anton Ohno claimed the first American medal of the 2010 Olympics to equal Bonnie Blair's American record six Winter Olympic medals.

In typical Ohno fashion, it didn't come without its share of controversy and crashes. Ohno was bumped by two Korean skaters with two laps remaining and was pushed back into fourth place where it seemed he would finish.

Then two Korean skaters crashed into each other on the final turn and Ohno had his sixth medal.

Day Two: J.R. Celski: Bronze- 1500 Meters Short Track

Sitting in fifth place behind Apolo Anton Ohno in the final, Celski benefited from the Korean crash on the final turn and claimed his first Olympic medal.

Not even a year ago, Celski thought his career was over when he suffered a scary injury in the U.S. Olympic trials when his skate blade sliced open his quad.

Day Two: Hannah Kearney: Gold - Moguls

A favorite to win gold in Torino, Kearney failed to advance past qualifying.

Four years later, she claimed Olympic gold when she denied gold medal favorite Jennifer Heil a chance to claim Canada's first home Olympic gold.

Kearney won the first of what would turn out to be nine American gold medals.

Day Two: Shannon Bahrke: Bronze- Moguls

Bahrke returned eight years later after a silver in Salt Lake City to surprisingly reach the podium again behind teammate Hannah Kearney and Canadian Jennifer Heil.

Day Three: Johnny Spillane: Silver- Nordic Combined Normal Hill

In the eighty-six years after the Nordic Combined was first contested at the Olympics, the United States finally reached the podium for the first time and Americans learned about a sport that combined ski jumping and cross-country skiing.

The medal came off the skis of Johnny Spillane, who came agonizingly close to claiming gold. Teammates Todd Lodwick and Bill DeMong were not far behind in fourth and sixth place.

Day Three: Bryon Wilson: Bronze- Moguls

Perhaps the least heralded member of the Men's moguls team, Wilson was the one who stuck on the podium for his first Olympic medal as he witnessed Alexandre Bilodeau claim Canada's first home Olympic gold medal.

Day Four: Seth Wescott: Gold-Snowboard Cross

Four years after winning the first-ever Snowboard Cross gold in Torino, Westcott was thought to be washed up and not even the best rider on the American team.

He managed his way through a quarterfinal and semifinal round only to find himself in last place out of four riders almost halfway down the course. Somehow Westcott managed to keep generating speed and took better lines down the course as his competitors slowed down.

Wescott won his second gold medal at the line by less than a length of a snowboard.

Day Five: Bode Miller: Bronze- Downhill

After a rocky Olympics and relationship with the media in Torino, Miller returned to the Olympic podium for the first time in eight years to claim a bronze in his first event in Vancouver.

In the closest podium in the history of the event, Miller missed gold by less than .1 seconds.

Miller's excellent trip down the mountain showed everyone that he was more focused and ready to win medals unlike four years before.

Day Six: Lindsey Vonn: Gold- Downhill

All of the drama about Vonn's injured shin, the weather delays, and her quest for Olympic glory, came to a quick resolution as Vonn lived up to the hype and struck gold in her first event of the Games.

Vonn became the first American Female downhill champion.

Her emotions and celebration after winning are hard to forget.

Day Six: Julia Mancuso: Silver-Downhill

Overlooked coming into Torino in part because of poor performance on the World Cup circuit and in part because of the media frenzy surrounding her teammate Lindsey Vonn, Mancuso claimed her second career Olympic medal (the first was a gold in the giant slalom in Torino) a bit behind Vonn and well ahead of the third place finisher from Austria.

Day Six: Shani Davis: Gold- 1000 Meters Speed Skating

Davis lived up to the expectations of being a heavy favorite in the event and claimed gold with a stirring last lap that won him gold by .18 seconds.

Davis became the second American to defend his gold medal from Torino in Vancouver after Seth Wescott had two days earlier in snowboard cross.

Day Six: Chad Hedrick: Bronze- 1000 Meters Speed Skating

After claiming three Olympic medals in Torino, including a gold in the 5,000, Hedrick was supposed to only have a chance at a medal in the 1,500.

But he proved everyone wrong in his second Olympic skate and took a surprising bronze behind his teammate Shani Davis while exhibiting his patented tongue wag as he pushed his body through difficult closing laps.

Day Six: Shaun White: Gold- Snowboard Halfpipe

Perhaps the biggest lock for gold at the Vancouver Games, White did not disappoint.

His performance in the Halfpipe capped a stunning day for the U.S. that saw six American medalists in total and three gold medal favorites fufill the media expectations and reach the top step.

White not only showed that he was the best in the world at the Halfpipe, but also that he was operating on a completely different level from the rest of his competition. His first of two runs was conservative but easily gave him the gold.

With the gold already clinched, White still put a show on for the fans in his second run and topped his first run score with a much anticipated double McTwist trick.

Day Six: Scotty Lago: Bronze- Snowboard Halfpipe

Lago came up big in his first Olympics to claim a bronze medal behind teammate Shaun White. Lago's performance once again displayed American dominance in snowboarding and that it wasn't just all about White on the U.S. team.

Day Seven: Julia Mancuso: Silver- Super Combined

Mancuso followed up her silver the previous day in the downhill with another surprising medal in the super combined. She was third after the downhill portion of the event, but a crash by teammate Lindsey Vonn in the slalom bumped Mancuso up to second behind German favorite Maria Riesch.

Mancuso's joy after her slalom run was unforgettable, as she fell to the ground and rolled around in the snow while kicking her skis up in the air.

Day Seven: Hannah Teter: Silver- Snowboard Halfpipe

The defending gold medalist couldn't match the technical excellence of Australian Torah Bright, but unlike her three American teammates, Teter was able to put together two clean runs that gave her a chance at the gold.

Day Seven: Kelly Clark: Bronze- Snowboard Halfpipe

Some considered the 2002 gold medalist from Salt Lake City to be the favorite to win her second gold, but a bronze was still better than when she narrowly missed the podium in Torino.

Clark fell in her first run, putting all the pressure on her second trip down the halfpipe, but she executed well enough to reach the podium.

Day Seven: Evan Lysacek: Gold- Figure Skating

Lysacek took gold in what was one of the most memorable moments of the Vancouver Games.

Four years after a disastrous short program relegated him to a fourth place finish, Lysacek put together two flawless skates to claim the top step of the podium.

His final free program skate was riveting and perfect, and just enough to beat the favorite and defending gold medalist Evegeni Plushenko of Russia.

Plushenko was miffed that he did not win gold, but the judges favored Lysacek's superior footwork sequences and overall program over Plushenko's difficult quad jump.

Day Eight: Bode Miller: Super-G- Silver

Miller claimed his second medal of the Vancouver Games to equal his total from Salt Lake City. The medal made him the most decorated American alpine skier in Olympic history.

Denied gold by less than a tenth of a second several days earlier in the downhill, Miller seemed poised for gold for a long time after his run.

One of the last men down the mountain, downhill bronze medalist Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, bumped Miller off the top step of the podium.

Day Eight: Andrew Weibrecht: Bronze- Super-G

Weibrecht won perhaps the most surprising American medal of the Vancouver Olympics.

Competing in just his seventh Super-G race on the world level, Weibrecht took a bronze medal, despite having never before finished an event in the top three and having only completed the course 50 percent of the time.

The son of innkeepers in Lake Placid, Weibrecht grew up surrounded by the Olympics and unexpectedly fufilled his dream in Vancouver.

He found himself on the cover of Sports Illustrated with stars Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, and Julia Mancuso less than a week after his medal run.

Day Nine: Lindsey Vonn: Bronze- Super-G

The second event in which Vonn was favored to win gold did not go quite as well as the first.

When she reached the bottom of the mountain, she found herself in first place and clearly thought she had done enough to win gold, but her time was bested by an Austrian and Slovenian who followed her in the run order.

Day Nine: Shani Davis: Silver- 1500 Meters Speed Skating

Davis came into the 1500 as a favorite to win his second gold of Vancouver, but he was upstaged by a young Dutchmen, Mark Tuitert, who had the skate of his life and gave Davis his second Olympic silver in the 1500 in as many tries.

Day Nine: Apolo Anton Ohno: Bronze- 1000 Meters Short Track

The 1000 meter final was probably the closest that Ohno came to claiming a gold medal in Vancouver.

He was in perfect position to pass the Korean skater in the lead with just a few laps remaining and seemed to have set up a pass perfectly. Nudged by a trailing Canadian skater, Ohno slipped slightly on the ice and did everything he could to pass two Canadians in the final lap to claim his U.S. record seventh Winter Olympic medal.

Day 10: Bode Miller: Gold- Super Combined

Miller capped his brilliant skiing career on the second Sunday of the Games with the one piece of hardware missing from his trophy case.

A former World Champion, No. 1 in the World Cup standings, and four time Olympic medalist, Miller claimed his first Olympic gold for his fifth career medal.

Injured and tired from a training crash several days before, Miller didn't think he had much shot to medal in the super combined. Sitting seventh after the downhill, it sure looked that way.

Then Miller threw down an aggressive slalom run like he hadn't in years and surged ahead of Ivica Kostelic, the best slalom skier in the competition.

Still Miller had to watch the top six skiers from the downhill portion of the event fail to match his time in the slalom before he was finally crowned Olympic champion.

Day 11: Meryl Davis and Charlie White: Silver- Ice Dancing

Overshadowed by their U.S. teammates Belbin and Agosto, who won Silver in Torino, the young American duo danced their way to silver behind their training partners from Canada.

Day 12: Nordic Combined Relay Team: Silver

After three members of the team placed second, fourth, and sixth, in the first individual event of the Nordic Combined in Vancouver, the U.S. all of a sudden became a gold medal favorite despite having never reached the podium in the sport prior to Vancouver.

After an excellent performance in the ski jumping portion of the competition, the Americans had a head start on their competition when they took to their cross-country skis.

The team's weakest skier, Brett Camerota, relinquished the advantage in the first leg of the relay but kept the Americans narrowly in the lead.

In the third leg of the race individual silver medalist, Johnny Spillane was dropped by Felix Gottwald of Austria, but Bill DeMong quickly made up the lost 20 seconds in the anchor leg.

DeMong didn't have quite enough left in the final quarter mile to claim gold.

The silver medal was still an incredible accomplishment for the U.S. team given its history in the sport.

Brett Camerota, Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane, and Bill DeMong effectively put Nordic Combined on the American map for the first time with their efforts.

For Lodwick, it was his first Olympic medal in five trips to the Olympics.

Day 13: Erin Pac and Elana Myers: Bronze- Two-Woman Bobsled

Top U.S. driver Shauna Robbock struggled with the track on all four of her runs and couldn't defend her silver from Torino, but the young and unheralded Pac took home one of the more surprising American medals of the Games.

Day 13: Short Track Women's 3000 Meter Relay: Bronze

The accomplishment here was making it into a four- team final. Anything can happen in a short track event, so it is always important to advance and just be in a race.

The Americans trailed mightily throughout the relay as Canada, China, and South Korea seemingly contested for the medals.

When South Korea was disqualified after the race for a questionable pass of the Chinese team, the Americans were bumped up from fourth place into third and claimed their first medal ever in the event.

Day 14: Bill Demong: Gold- Nordic Combined Large Hill

Of all the medals Americans won in Vancouver this may have been the most significant.

After two narrow misses at gold by the U.S. team in the previous Nordic Combined events, Demong finally reached the top step of the podium for the Americans.

He came into the stadium with teammate Johnny Spillane right on his tail. The scene of two Americans at the front at the end of a race on cross-country skis at the Olympics had never even come close to happening before.

Entering Vancouver, the United States had won one medal in cross country, none in biathlon, and none in Nordic Combined. Demong's gold and Spillane's silver in this race were the third and fourth medals of Vancouver for the U.S. Nordic Combined team.

Throughout Olympic history, Europeans have dominated Nordic Combined like no other sport, winning all but one individual medal in the discipline prior to Vancouver.

The U.S. became the first non-European country to win the overall Winter Olympic medal count in 78 years. Nothing better symbolized the shift from European dominance of the Winter Games than Demong's gold and American success in Nordic Combined.

It was only fitting that Demong carried the American flag into the closing ceremonies on the final Sunday of the Games to represent a record-breaking U.S. Olympic team.

Day 14: Johnny Spillane: Silver- Nordic Combined Large Hill

Given that the United States had never won a medal in Nordic Combined prior to these Games, Spillane's accomplishment of winning a third Olympic silver medal in Vancouver was incredible.

Only Bode Miller and Apolo Anton Ohno won as many medals as Spillane on the U.S. team.

Day 14: Women's Hockey Team: Silver

The U.S. team played well throughout the competition but were turned back with seeming ease by the Canadians in the final.

An Olympic silver medal is always a notable accomplishment, but Women's hockey is about the U.S., Canada, and then everyone else, so it was surely a disappointment for the players in this case.

Day 14: Jeret Peterson: Silver- Aerials

In Torino, Peterson opted to go for it rather than play it safe on his final jump. A conservative jump and he would have likely scored a bronze, but he instead went for the gold and ended up off the podium when he failed to execute his patented "hurricane" trick.

Four years later, Peterson tried it again on his final jump and this time stuck the landing. He still narrowly missed out on gold, but it was enough for a silver.

Day 15: Katherine Reutter: Silver- 1000 Meters Short Track

Reutter became the first American woman to experience success in short track at the Olympics in almost two decades. Her silver in the 1000 concluded an impressive Olympics in which she also finished fourth in the 1500 and won a bronze in the team relay.

Day 15: Short Track Men's 5000 Meter Relay Team: Bronze

Less than an hour after failing to defend his Torino gold and being disqualified in the final of the 500 meters, Apolo Anton Ohno captivated American short track fans once more and rallied the team past Korea into third place in the final leg of the race.

The bronze was also the second of the Games for J.R. Celski, making him one of ten Americans to win multiple medals in Vancouver.

Day 16: Men's Speed Skating Pursuit Team: Silver

The Americans came up just short against Canada as an injured Chad Hedrick seemed to finally run out of gas in the gold medal final.

But the real story came the day before in the semifinals when the 32-year-old Hedrick led two 19-year-old teammates past a Dutch team that was heavily favored to win gold.

It was one of the most surprising upsets of the Vancouver Games and earned Hedrick his fifth career Olympic medal.

Day 16: Four-Man Bobsled (Driver: Steve Holcomb): Gold

While the U.S. Olympic team struggled a bit in the second week in Vancouver after a blistering start, driver Steve Holcomb provided one more memorable American gold medal in Vancouver.

Holcomb drove a four-man U.S. bobsled to an Olympic victory for the first time in over 60 years and beat a four-time Olympic champion, Andre Lange of Germany, in the process.

Day 17: Men's Hockey Team: Silver

Some have said that the hockey tournament in Vancouver may be remembered as the best ever played.

Sidney Crosby's game winning overtime goal against the Americans in the final may be remembered as the greatest moment in Canadian sports history for a long time to come.

But the U.S. team played brilliantly throughout the tournament and didn't drop a game en route to the final, including a pool play win over Canada.

Goaltender Ryan Miller was spectacular right to the end and gave an American team thought to be the fifth or sixth best team in the tournament, a chance to reach the podium.