Winter Olympics medal count 2018: Norway running away with overall lead

With one week to go in the 2018 Winter Olympics, Norway has established itself as the top medal leader. As of Sunday evening, the Norwegians have 26 medals total, well ahead of Germany’s 18, Canada’s 16, and the Netherlands’ 13.

Norway added to its medal total after several strong performances on Saturday. The cross country team took the gold in men’s 4x10 relay, while Oystein Braaten topped the podium at men’s ski slopestyle. In the men’s Alpine ski downhill, Henrik Kristoffersen got the silver position behind Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who picked up his second gold of this year’s games.

With those victories, Norway is now tied with Germany for gold medals, with each country having nine apiece. The Germans had a quiet day in medal competition on Saturday, but Simon Schempp still managed silver in the biathlon men’s 15km mass start.

Freestyle skiing picked up steam with the men’s aerial event, where Oleksandr Abramenko delivered Ukraine’s first gold medal in Pyeongchang. In long track speed skating, Japan’s Nao Kodaira won gold at the women’s 500m, denying South Korea another win in one of the country’s most popular sports (Sang-hwa Lee got silver).

The United States is falling behind the pack a bit, sitting in a tie for sixth place with five golds, three silvers, and two bronzes. Their overall count took a big hit when gold medal contenders like Lindsey Jacobellis, Mikaela Shiffrin, and Nathan Chen failed to podium in their respective events. The Americans bounced back a little bit with Nick Goepper taking silver in the men’s ski slopestyle, but that was it for their Saturday efforts.

It’s a relatively quiet night, with no medal events in the NBC primetime window. Free skating returns with the ice dance short program, where American siblings Alex and Maia Shibutani are big podium favorites. Lindsey Vonn will ski again after placing first in the downhill training run, but that event won’t have its medals decided until Tuesday.

Other qualifying events to watch are women’s ski halfpipe, women’s snowboard big air, and women’s bobsled training runs. The U.S. women’s hockey team will play Finland in the semifinal round, with a potential Canada rematch looming.