Winter Olympics 2014 odds: United States favored to win overall medal count in Sochi

The Winter Olympics start Thursday for those in need of a hard fix coming off their post-football crash. Super Bowl prop bets are a whirlwind of fast, goofy action that basketball and hockey can’t quite match. But Sochi can, with odds to cover a wide swath of events, as well as specials ranging medal counts to the performance of the Jamaican bobsled team.

The gold and overall medal counts will be closely watched by casual fans and those willing to put real money on the games. Currently, Norway is favored to win the most gold medals at 23/20 odds (courtesy of Bovada), but the United States is just behind at 5/2, followed by Germany at 7/1, and Russia and Canada both at 9/1. The U.S. is favored in the overall medal count at 1/1, however, followed by Norway at 9/5, Germany at 5/1, Russia at 13/2 and Canada at 16/1.

Austria, South Korea and China lead the long shots in both categories. All three countries have 40/1 odds to win the gold medal count, and 80/1 odds to win the overall medal count. France and Sweden have done well at the Winter Olympics in the past, but both countries are at 50/1 odds to win the gold medal count and 100/1 odds to win the overall medal count.

The United States’ best odds for gold are in ice dancing, men’s snowboarding and men’s speedskating. The pairing of Meryl Davis and Charlie White are currently at 1/2 odds (meaning you would bet two dollars to make a profit of one) on the ice, which is somehow better than Shani Davis’ 1/1 odds to win the men’s 1,000-meter speedskating event. Shaun White trumps them all, however, with 2/5 odds to win the men’s snowboard halfpipe.

As for the plucky underdog Jamaican bobsleigh team, you can bet at 50/1 odds that it will medal, and 9/1 that it will finish in the top 10. If you’re the cold-hearted type, you can take 3/1 odds that the two-man team will crash.

Excluding hockey, here are some of the events in which the United States is favored to win one medal, or at least contend. Americans in bold. Head over to Bovada for a full list of odds.

Humphries/Moyse (CAN 1) -- 1/1
Meyers/Evans (USA 1) -- 11/5
Kiriasis/Fritz (GER 3) -- 6/1
Greubel/Williams (USA 2) -- 8/1
Schneiderheinze/Schneider (GER 2) -- 12/1
Martini/Senkel (GER 1) -- 14/1
Meyer/Mayer (SUI 1) -- 14/1
Kamphuis/Vis (NED) -- 28/1
Stulneva/Udobkina (RUS 1) -- 33/1
Fenlator/Jones (USA 3) -- 40/1

Jamie Anderson -- 5/2
Spencer O’Brien -- 4/1
Sarka Pancochova -- 5/1
Silje Norendal -- 5/1
Torah Bright -- 9/1
Christy Prior -- 14/1
Cheryl Maas -- 16/1
Jenna Blasman -- 16/1
Jenny Jones -- 16/1

Shaun White -- 2/5
Yuri Podladchikov -- 6/1
Danny Davis -- 7/1
Gregory Bretz -- 12/1
Peetu Piirooinen -- 14/1
Taku Hiraoka -- 14/1
Taylor Gold -- 16/1
Nathan Johnstone -- 25/1
Markus Malin -- 40/1
Brad Martin -- 66/1

Shani Davis -- 1/1
Brian Hansen -- 7/2
Stefan Groothuis -- 8/1
Tae-Bum Mo -- 10/1
Denis Kuzin -- 10/1

Shani Davis -- 11/4
Denis Yuskov -- 4/1
Koen Vermeij -- 6/1
Brian Hansen -- 6/1
Ivan Skobrev -- 9/1

Davis/White -- 1/2
Virtue/Moir -- 3/2
Ilinykh/Katsalapov -- 20/1
Pechelat/Bourzat -- 20/1
Bobrova/Soloviev -- 20/1

Yuna Kim -- 5/6
Mao Asada -- 9/4
Carolina Kostner -- 8/1
Julia Lipnitskaia -- 8/1
Kanako Murikami -- 12/1
Ashley Wagner -- 18/1

Aksel Lund Svindal -- 2/1
Erik Guay -- 13/2
Bode Miller -- 11/2
Christof Innerhofer -- 9/1
Patrick Kueng -- 12/1

Aksel Lund Svindal -- 10/11
Bode Miller -- 3/1
Hannes Reichelt -- 12/1
Erik Guay -- 16/1
Ted Ligety -- 16/1

Ted Ligety -- 11/10
Marcel Hircher -- 7/4
Felix Neureuther -- 8/1
Alexis Pinturault -- 8/1
Thomas Fanara -- 14/1
Bode Miller -- 25/1

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