In one of the most exciting Winter Olympics in recent memory, the Americans stole the show in Vancouver by winning a record 37 medals, including 9 gold medals, and the Canadians defended their home turf by taking home a record 14 gold medals. An event that occurs every two years captivated the entire country for 2 full weeks and gave a huge sense of national pride for both Canada and the United States.

The Vancouver Games kicked off with the drama and speculation surrounding downhill skier Linsdey Vonn. The 25-year old is widely considered the best female skier in American history, but it was looking more and more likely that she wouldn’t be able to particpate in the Olympics because of a deep shin bruise. With a little luck because of bad weather, Vonn ended up competing in all 5 of her events, but only medaled in 2 of them (gold and bronze) because of crashes in the other 3. American Julia Mancuso also brought home 2 medals, both of them silver.

Snowboarder Shaun White proved why he is universially regarded as the best snowboarder in the world when he threw down a nearly perfect run in the men’s halfpipe event. With the gold medal secured, White still had one run to go, but instead of just doing easy tricks, he decided to put on a show. He finished his victory lap by doing a trick that he invented but had yet to land in competition, the Double McTwist 1260. White’s performance was probably the most dominant in the entire Olympic Games.

Another great American story that the Olympics produced was the return to prominence for Bode Miller. In his 3rd Olympics, Miller won 3 medals (one of each color) to redeem himself from his poor performance in Torino. He was expected to dominate in 2006, but instead acted like he didn’t care about succeeding and left Italy with no medals. Due to the poor performance in the 2006 games, Miller refocused as a 32-year old to come to this year’s games ready to finally deliver on the promise he showed in 2002. With the 3 medals he won, he did just that and his story became one of the most improbable of the Vancouver Games.

As alwasy, speed skating seemed to be a viewer’s favorite, mainly because of the insane speed in long track and the crashes in short track. Short track skater Apolo Ohno (when did he drop the Anton?) became the most decorated Winter Olympian in American history by winning 3 medals in Vancouver (a silver and 2 bronzes) to bring his total to 8. In a sport that can see you lose a medal by a simple stumble or push, it’s impressive that Ohno always put himself in a position to win. In the long track version of speed skating, double gold favorite Shani Davis ended up taking home just one gold and one silver, in the 1000m and 1500m respectively.

Another huge American surprise was in men’s figure skating, where Evan Lysacek pulled the upset over 2006 gold medalist and Russian Evgeni Plushenko. Lysacek was in second place following the short program, but a near perfect free skate earned Lysacek the gold medal by just over a point (257.67-256.36). The gold medal was the American’s first in the event since 1988 when Brian Boltano beat Canadian Brian Orser.

Other American triumphs in Vancouver included the first ever gold medal in nordic combined, won by Bill Demong. In fact, Johnny Spillane, another American, also took silver in that event. Men’s bobsled ended a 62-year gold medal drought for Americans in the 4-man event by edging Germany out by almost four tenths of a second.

These games produced a lot of great memories for American followers of the Olympics, but by far the best memory was the run of the US men’s hockey team. The giants of the sport (Canada, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic) were all there with their superstars from the NHL so no one game the Americans much of a shot to medal. After a perfect preliminary round which included a thrilling 5-3 win over the Canadians, the Americans entered the quarterfinals as the #1 seed in the tournament.

2 easy wins against the Swiss and Fins got the Americans into the gold medal match, a rematch against the host Canadians. The game was tense throughout and the pressure mounted until Zach Parise tied the game with 24 seconds left and an empty net on the other end of the ice. In the end, Sidney Crosby gave the Canadians the gold with a goal in overtime, but American hockey made it’s statement with a exciting, competitive team full of young talent.

All in all, these Winter Games were probably the most memorable in my lifetime. There were plenty of signature American moments and even the non-American moments were fairly memorable. Vancouver was a great host city for the Games as there were no problems in the 2 weeks of the games. See you for the 2012 London Games!!