Feb. 15, 2018 –
2018 U.S. Olympic Team Fun Facts
The 2018 U.S. Olympic Committee shared some interesting team facts just in time for this year’s winter games in PyeongChang.
• Thirty-one states are represented, including 31 athletes from Colorado, 22 from California, 20 from Minnesota, 19 from New York and 16 from Utah. Park City, Utah have eight athletes in the winter games. Steam Boat Springs, Colorado has six athletes competing; Anchorage, Alaska and Duluth, Minnesota are represented by five athletes each.
• The oldest and youngest Olympians on the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team are ice hockey player Brian Gionta, 39, and figure skater Vincent Zhou, 17.
• The tallest member of the team is Bryce Bennett at 6 feet, 7 inches (alpine skiing). Figure skater, Karen Chen and short track speed skater, Jessica Kooreman, are both 5 feet tall.
• Joceylyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando are the only set of twins on Team USA.
• There are six sets of siblings, including cross-country skiers Erik and Sadie Bjornsen, Logan and Reese Hanneman, and Caitlin and Scott Patterson; curlers Becca and Matt Hamilton; figure skaters Alex and Maia Shibutani; and Nordic combined athletes Bryan and Taylor Fletcher.
• Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim are the only married couple on Team USA. They compete in pairs figure skating.
• Twenty-one members of the team have children; there are 20 fathers and one mother.
• Thirty-six athletes have Olympic family ties, including seven who have parents who have competed at the Olympic Games.
• Thirty-eight athletes speak at least one language in addition to English; Chloe Kim (snowboarding), Clare Egan (biathlon), and Thomas Hong (short track speedskating) also speak Korean.
• Seventy-six percent of Team USA attended college at 87 schools. More than a third of those competed in college-level sports.
• Seven athletes serve in the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program, including Nathan Weber, Nick Cunningham, Chris Fogt and Justin Olsen (men’s bobsled); and luge athletes Taylor Morris, Matt Mortensen and Emily Sweeney.
