Every four years, the world comes together to compete in the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games started in Greece when they held a great festival to honor their Gods.  At this time, they made games that tested the mental endurance and physical power of men. Nowadays, the Olympic Games are not nearly as brutal, but they still are competitive. This year, 2014, is the year of the Winter Sports in Sochi, Russia.

                This year, there is a new category called Slope Style. This is where participants ski or snowboard down a slope.  They then grind across a horizontal steel pipe, go off of a jump, do a trick, and then go on another bigger jump and do another, possibly more complicated, trick. America won the first Gold medal in this new event with an amazing show by Sage Kotinsburg. When asked what their reaction of his performance, Placer High student Daniel Frew said “Dude, it was amazing. I cried. I wish I could do that”.  Another student states, “It was the most majestical, magical, magnificent thing I have ever seen in my life,” said Placer High School sophomore Ryan Jenkins. Logan Frew challenged “I could do that.”

                The Slope Style event adds the ability for competitors to express individuality and awesomeness through their tricks. Other contestants that won medals for this event from America are Joss Christensen, Kaitlyn Farrington, and Kelly Clark. When asked how they liked this new event, students said “it’s cool and wicked”. The event makers knew what they were doing when they added this event into the Olympics.   

By the end of all of the events, Russia came away with the most metals.  They finished with a total of thirteen gold medals, an Olympic high.  The country that came in second in medal placing was the United States.  America had twenty eight medals overall.  Although the United States was second in overall metals, they had nine gold medals which were behind the amount of gold medals for both Canada and Norway.  Canada came in third for medals with ten gold medals and twenty five medals overall.