�����ԹϺ���

Mea culpa time. We predicted this would be our best Olympics ever, and then it was a little underwhelming. It’s not been all bad—we were especially thrilled by medals from , Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins, and Mikaela Shiffrin ()—not to mention Lindsey Vonn’s emotional bronze. But it hasn’t quite been the flurry of gold we expected.

Still, we’re good sports and Olympic enthusiasts until the end. So we decided to end the Games by awarding a few gold medals, honoring the most exciting and ridiculous moments that really made the 2018 Olympics.

Best Call by an Announcer: Chad Salmela on Women’s Cross Country Skiing

“” It’s up there with “The Giants win the pennant,” “Down goes Frazier,” and “Do you believe in miracles?” as one of the best calls of all time.

—Matt Skenazy, senior editor

Best Social Media Presence: Adam Rippon

Yes, I know this is a predictable one. But I spend a lot of time on Twitter (much more time than I’ve spent watching the Olympics, if I’m being honest) and figure skater is a small bright spot in that dark place. If you need convincing that Adam deserves the gold in this category, I’ll just let him speak for himself:

—Molly Mirhashem, associate editor

Best Worst Athlete Who Should’ve Been in the Olympics: Krishna Sai Rahul Eluri

This figure skater has such a heartfelt story about how he practices primarily on roller skates since his hometown doesn’t have an ice rink. At Slate, Justin Peters wrote an  to Eluri’s performance in the 2016 International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix: “Even without adjusting for those limitations, he gave the crowd a fun show characterized by an authentic joy that many skaters lose as their routines become more polished.” 

—Jenny Earnest, social media manager

Best Worst Athlete Who ����dzܱ����’t Have Been in the Olympics: Elizabeth Swaney

You’ve likely already seen  from the women’s freeski halfpipe event. Swaney drops in and approaches each wall with hesitance. Her skis barely leave the snow at the lip of the pipe—a stark contrast to the electrifying 900’s and 1080’s performed by medalists  of Canada,  of France, and the USA’s . Turns out that Swaney, an American, figured out how to get into the Olympics with the help of loopholes, self-funding, and competing for Hungary. All of the other athletes, and women’s freeskiing in general, were left unjustly overshadowed by this self-promotional stunt. At least it was funny?

—Christopher Thompson, visual producer

Worst Sportsmanship: Mathieu Faivre

This week, I learned that you can get sent home from the Olympics just for being a bad team player, as French skier Mathieu Faivre was after he placed seventh in the giant slalom and he didn’t care how his teammates did: “I’m here for my own personal interest, to build my career.” I also learned that FIS . (Faivre is a capricorn—maybe this explains his bad attitude!) Most importantly, I learned that Faivre is dating Mikaela Shiffrin, a pisces who clearly deserves better than this. 

—Erin Berger, senior editor

Best Spectator: The Curling Husband

At every Olympics there are fans who rise above the crowd—last summer we got , this year it was the glorious “.” In what is my favorite moment of the Games, Canadian curler Rachel Homan’s husband was seen double fisting beers as he cheered her on at a 9 a.m. match. Nothing but respect for you, sir. 

—Marie Sullivan, associate video producer

Most Team Spirit: Leslie Jones

From with Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir to on Pierre McGuire’s mid-game women’s hockey interview fail, Jones is here for Team USA.

—Aleta Burchyski, senior copy editor

Best Finish-Line Celebration: German Mandrazo

The guy picked up cross-country skiing last year, competing for Mexico and training with Tonga’s famous , Pita Taufatofua. Mandrazo came in dead last in the men's individual 15K race, nearly doubling the time of the first place finisher. But when Mandrazo crossed the finish line he , throwing his arms into the air and grabbing a Mexican flag from a fan, before his Tongan pal hoisted him into the air. 

—J. Weston Phippen, senior editor

Best Olympic Athlete-Artist: Alexi Pappas

Distance runner Alexi Pappas is a taste of what life is really like at the Winter Games as one of the four athletes selected for an  this year. Her Instagram is full of training shots on forest trails and photos of her lounging in her Olympic Village bed. And she gets bonus points for flashing her bicep tattoo of the Olympic rings, from when she competed in the last Summer Games, at every chance she gets.

—Abigail Wise, online managing editor

Wildest Snowboarding Lingo: Jamie Anderson

Including: “putting it down,” “winning double gold would’ve been gangster,” and “bless the rest.” She killed me. It was like .

—Mary Turner, deputy editor

Most “WTF? Seriously?” Moment

As we know, Russians were banned from competing under their own flag because of the state-sponsored doping conspiracy. You’d think they’d take a season off. But Aleksandr Krushelnitckii says, Idi k chertu (roughly: go to hell) and doped anyway. He was caught and stripped of his bronze medal in… .

—J.��.��.

Most Entertaining Overall Commentary: Bode Miller

Clearly I disagree with on this. Sure, he’s made some , but listening to Miller talk is so much less painful than it used to be watching him ski. A pretty great moment was his self-deprecating acknowledgment, during the women’s alpine combined event, that he was probably being too hard on the competitors because at least they were getting themselves down the slope cleanly, which he could only do half the time.

—Svati Narula, assistant social media editor

Greatest Feud We Didn’t Know We Needed: Kirstie Alley vs. U.S. Men’s Curling Team

Kirstie Alley ; the men’s curling team said Kirstie’s movies are boring. To be fair: The U.S. for a place in the gold-medal round is the opposite of boring. And Kirstie Alley was really good in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.

—A.��.