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A Presidential Celebration

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:33:15 -0400

At the White House

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted more than 200 Olympians and Paralympians at the White House this afternoon. Among the athletes in attendance were Paralympic skier Tatyana McFadden, wheelchair curler Jimmy Joseph, and the entire U.S. sled hockey team.

President Obama congratulated the athletes on the 46 medals Team USA brought home from Sochi, calling special attention to Declan Farmer’s three goals scored to help the U.S. sled hockey team win its second consecutive gold medal. At the end of the event, the President and First Lady were presented with Olympic and Paralympic flags signed by the athletes.

And the Winner is...

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 12:58:47 -0400

Best of U.S. Awards Show

Outstanding Paralympians and Olympians from 2014 Winter Games in Sochi were honored last night at the inaugural "Best of U.S." Awards Show, held at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Presented by the United States Olympic Committee, the awards were decided by fan voting on the Team USA Facebook page.

Skier Mark Bathum won as Best Male Paralympian for his silver medal performances in both men’s super-G and super combined events (visually impaired). Eighteen-year-old skier and first-time Paralympian Stephanie Jallen took home two awards, for Best Female Paralympian and for Moment of the Games. When Jallen won bronze medals in women’s super-G — her first Paralympic event ever — and in women’s super combined (standing), her joyous reaction lit up the medals ceremonies.

And our ICE WARRIORS were voted "Team of the Games" for winning historic back-to-back gold medals as they defeated the home team, Russia, in their home arena.

Team USA Highlights from Sochi

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 16:46:58 -0400

Moments that stood out for Team USA in Sochi –

1. 10-time Summer medalist Tatyana McFadden (above, left) won our hearts by taking silver in the women’s nordic 1km sprint (sitting) after less than a year of winter training – and by doing it in front of both her Russian birth mother and the adoptive family who brought her up. Watching her win – and her grimace as she realized she’d come within a fraction of a fraction of a second of gold – suggests she’ll be back and gunning in the next Winter Games. Her sit-ski teammate Oksana Masters earned two medals, a silver and a bronze.

2. The new sport of snowboard cross was a chance for Team USA to reaffirm the sheer American-ness of this sport. Led by Evan Strong (above), the US men swept the podium, and Amy Purdy brought home a women’s bronze, with two teammates right behind her in fourth and fifth places.

Opening Guns, Closing Accounts

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 10:29:04 -0400

Two weeks ago, the Sochi 2014 Paralympic flame was extinguished, dramatically, in a bowl of ice. The Paralympic flag was handed over to South Korea, the next host for the Winter Games.

The 2014 Games began under a cloud that was eerily reminiscent of the past. In the 1980 Summer Games, the US withdrew its athletes from competition in protest of the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. America was joined by Japan, West Germany, China, Canada, and other nations.

Bringing Home the Gold

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 10:35:49 -0400

It’s just an expression used to describe a top win – “bringing home the gold.” But there’s a literal meaning to those words, as the USA Sled Hockey team discovered, and it’s pretty wonderful, too.

For Brody Roybal, it meant arriving home in Northlake, Illinois, to find hundreds of people in front his house chanting “USA! USA!” The crowd included family, friends, complete strangers, news reporters, and his West Leyden High School classmates. Just before leaving for Sochi, Brody had promised his school to do his best to “bring home the gold.” Mission accomplished.

2014 Paralympic Winter Games Come to a Close

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:17:01 -0400

Closing Ceremony

Ten days ago, at the Opening Ceremony for the Sochi Paralympics, Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, called these Games “proof that what might not seem possible IS possible.”

So it was fitting that tonight’s Closing Ceremony was titled “Reaching the Impossible.” The idea was brought to life in a sequence patterned on a video game, propelled by dancers moving giant multi-color blocks. Suddenly, the blocks rose to form the word IMPOSSIBLE as a countdown clock reached zero and “GAME OVER” flashed.

Snapshots from the Win

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 09:35:38 -0400

Sled Hockey: Post-Win Interview

· After every game, players line up and bump fists with their opponents, acknowledging the win, the loss, the game. Rico Roman (#23) was struck by a moment after the gold medal match: “One of the Russian players, they’re ex-military, too, one of them said, ‘Good job, soldier.’ That meant a lot.”

· Gold medals are heavy - more than a pound and a half in total, shards of thick reflective glass set in a silver core and 24 karat gold exterior. The imagery engraved on them represents the sun's rays reflected through snowy mountains, and the temperate Black Sea coast next to Sochi’s icy peaks. The American players were holding on tightly to theirs, but also sharing: “Would you like to wear it?” So ICE WARRIORS can attest to how great that weight feels hanging around your neck.

· Team USA was jubilant after the Games, and ICE WARRIORS was there as they got on their bus back to the hotel. We’d heard them, many times over the months we’d filmed the team, cheering “ USA! USA!” before and after games. Now they were saluting each other: “BROOODY!!” “ JOSHHH!!!” And then, to the ICE WARRIORS team’s amazement, they cheered us: “PBS! PBS!” We were humbled.

Watch the team's journey to victory in ICE WARRIORS.

Sled Hockey Fans

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 22:51:41 -0400

Sled Hockey Fans

We're big fans... of sled hockey fans. Take a look at some of our favorite gold medal game fans!

ICE WARRIORS win gold

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 18:13:43 -0400

Sled Hockey Final: USA vs Russia

The most important game of their lives, for both Team USA And Team Russia, came down to just one goal. Josh Sweeney (#13), who put that goal in the net, said he knew the Russian goalie, Vladimir Kamantcev, was a big presence in goal. So when Sweeney made a fast steal from a Russian defender, he did a little fake-out move, got Kamantcev to commit, and shot past him. It was enough. Team USA is bringing home gold, the first sled hockey team ever to win back-to-back gold medals.

Snowboarders Welcome

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:35:49 -0400

Men and Women's Snowboarding

Snowboarding made its official debut at the Paralympics, and Americans bagged four of the six medals.

The American men swept all the medals in their event, with Evan Strong winning gold, coming in less than a second faster than silver medalist Michael Shea. Bronze winner Keith Gabel said, “The clean sweep is an honor. It’s a stupendous moment.”

And Team USA’s Amy Purdy came in third in the women’s event, behind boarders from Netherlands and France. Purdy, who had earlier blogged about tough conditions on the Rosa Khutor alpine center, said conditions ranged from “icy slush to wet slush.” Today the course was so bumpy, she added, “It was all about staying on my feet” and “riding smart.”