U.S. medals trump mettle

TURIN, Italy – The Olympic flame will be extinguished tonight, leaving Americans with at least one burning question: Who will grace the cover of the Wheaties box?

Though the 2006 U.S. team racked up 25 medals – 12 more than an American team had won at a Winter Games on foreign soil – this could go down as the faceless Olympics.

Unlike Olympics past, there was a shortage of weeping U.S. athletes wrapped in the American flag. Goose-bump moments were as hard to spot as the Shroud of Turin.

Instead, the images indelibly etched into the viewers’ minds are skier Bode Miller crashing off the race course, going 0 for 5, and partying with Playboy bunnies at a Sestriere bar; figure skater Sasha Cohen squandering her gold-medal chance with two falls; snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis hot-dogging in a costly moment of youthful playfulness; and speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis bickering.

Then there’s aerial skier Jeret Peterson, who was sent home on Friday after getting into an altercation with an acquaintance.

There certainly were smudge-free American medalists over the 16 days. There was Shaun “Flying Tomato” White, the freckle-faced snowboarder with the crush on Cohen; Lindsey Kildow, the gutsy skier who competed after a serious crash; and speedskater Joey Cheek, who will carry the flag in tonight’s Closing Ceremony after winning gold and silver and donating his $40,000 medal performance bonuses to charity.

Davis, the first black athlete to win an individual gold in the Winter Olympics, is certainly one of the most memorable athletes of the Games, but his feud with Hedrick got equal billing with his two medals. Davis earned some public relations points Saturday, showing up for Hedrick’s 10,000 race and rooting for his adversary from the front row.

Apolo Anton Ohno, the short track speedskater with the soul patch and the cool name, salvaged his Olympics with a gold and bronze Saturday night, bringing his total to three for the Games.

Three of the most-hyped athletes – Miller, Jeremy Bloom, and Johnny Weir – had more photo shoots than medals. Michelle Kwan, she of the Visa and Coca-Cola commercials, marched in the Opening Ceremony and pulled out with nagging injuries. The men’s hockey team won one of its six games, and the women’s team settled for bronze.

The Alpine team, which was expecting to win eight medals, heads home with two.

Despite the lack of U.S. stars, team officials and athletes said they were pleased by the overall performance. The men’s speedskating team came up with seven medals (four gold, two silver, one bronze) and seven different snowboarders won medals. The team ranks second on the medal chart behind Germany (29) with nine golds, nine silvers and seven bronzes.

The United States won 13 medals in 1994 and 1998, and was not expected to match the record 34 it won in Salt Lake City four years ago. In fact, historically, the former host nation drops off 40 percent at the next Olympics, so by those standards, the U.S. team was hugely successful here.

“You can’t say it’s been a horrible performance,” said skier Ted Ligety, who won gold in combined. “It’s just Bode and Daron (Rahlves) didn’t have the medals they were supposed to get.”

Of course, it helps that snowboarding was added to the Olympic menu in 1998. Without it, the United States would be in sixth place.

“Competitively, this has been an incredible performance,” said U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr. “I think it’s a little bit our fault that this team has been viewed a little bit less than that because of the high expectations we all had. It has been a wonderful performance across the board.”

Press attache Bob Condron said the team should be proud of its depth.

“I think it says a lot that even without some of our big names winning, we got 25 medals,” Condron said. “There was a time we were just happy to be part of the party, and we were thrilled with eight medals. Now, some people are considering it disappointing that we have 25 medals.”