Torino By the Numbers

If you love sports, chances are you love statistics, too. Stats are, unscientifically speaking, 56 percent of the fun of sports. So let’s take a look inside the numbers of these Torino games so far. Most of these numbers are genuine, bona fide facts. Others, where noted, are guesses and suppositions. Either way, I’m betting this will be your No. 1 fastest Olympic read all day. Let’s bring on the digits.

Total number of American medals won, through Wednesday afternoon: 18

Number of American medals won in “traditional” Winter Olympic sports: 7

Total number of German medals won, through Wednesday afternoon: 22

Number of German medals won in “traditional” Winter Olympic sports: 22

Number of American athletes with multiple medals: 3

Number of American athletes with multiple medals who aren’t long-track speed skaters: 0

Number of pre-Olympic major magazine covers featuring Bode Miller: 4 (NEWSWEEK, Time, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated)

Number of medals won by Bode Miller, through four of five men’s alpine skiing events: 0

Highest finish by Bode Miller, through four of five men’s alpine skiing events: 5th

Number of disqualifications by Bode Miller, through four of five men’s alpine skiing events: 2

Predicted number of post-Olympic major magazine covers featuring Bode Miller: 0

Number of medals won by the U.S. ski team, whose slogan heading into Torino was “Best in the World,” through eight of 10 alpine events: 1

Number of medals won by the Austrian ski team, through eight of 10 alpine events: 11

Number of medals won by Croatia’s Kostelic family, Janica and Ivica, through eight of 10 alpine events: 3

Percentage, unscientifically determined, of fans at long-track speedskating events who are Dutch: 68

Percentage, unscientifically determined, of Dutch fans at long-track events wearing silly hats: 78

Number, in variety, of silly Dutch hats, as counted by NEWSWEEK reporter Devin Gordon at Tuesday night’s 1,500-meter race: 14

Full list of silly Dutch hat varieties (not a number, but fun): Overlong blue-white-and-orange scarf hat, orange cowboy hat, orange traffic-cone hat (NEWSWEEK’s favorite), inflatable orange crown hat, inflatable windmill hat, orange Seussian cat-in-the-hat, orange curly wig hat, orange Dutch clog hat, orange World-War-I bomber hat, orange Santa Claus hat with fake Heidi hair, orange plush-cow hat, orange police patrolman’s hat, orange plush-tiara hat, spiky orange alien hat

Number of Olympic gold medalists on the U.S. men’s long-track speed skating team: 5

Rank of finish by U.S. men’s long-track speed skating team in the team pursuit event: 6th

Number of American TV viewers who watched NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremonies: 22.8 million

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

Number of Japanese TV viewers who watched the Opening Ceremonies: 10.66 million

Number of German TV viewers who watched the men’s luge competition: 8.3 million

Number of figure-skating events, with three of four completed, won by Russian athletes: 3

Current rank of Irina Slutskaya, the top Russian finisher, after the ladies’ figure skating short program: 2

Number of points by which Slutskaya trails the United States’s Sasha Cohen, currently in first place: 0.03

Number of figure skaters in the top-ranked group that chose to skip Wednesday’s practice session, the day before athletes perform their long program: 1 (Sasha Cohen)

Number of names that U.S. figure skater Sasha Cohen has in common with the actor who plays HBO comedian Ali G: 2 (His name is Sasha Baron Cohen. Respek.)

Number of major publications that misidentified U.S. figure skater Sasha Cohen in a photograph as “Sasha Baron”: 1 (The New York Times)

Number of performances in the pair’s ice-dancing final set to Ravel’s “Bolero,” which was immortalized at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics by British ice-dancing gold-medalists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean: 2

Number of medals won by the two pairs who danced to Ravel’s “Bolero”: 0

Number of years since the United States last won a medal in ice dancing, a streak that was snapped when Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto captured the silver medal this week: 30

Number of days ago that Tanith Belbin officially became a U.S. citizen: 54

Number of doping tests the International Olympic Committee expects to conduct during the Torino Games: 1,200

Percentage increase of doping tests from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics: 72

Number of female doping-control officials reportedly posing as star-struck fans who kissed Austrian alpine skier Hermann Maier and then, dropping the ruse, demanded a urine sample: 1

Number of balding athletes ejected from the Olympics for using the anti-baldness medication Propecia: 1 (American skeleton athlete Zach Lund)

Number of years that Lund legally used Propecia before it was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances: 6

Number of substances used in Torino by NEWSWEEK reporters that are, thank heavens, specifically approved by WADA’s prohibited list: 5 (Ambien, Metamucil, Maalox Plus, Centrum, Lagavulin 16-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch … OK, Lagavulin isn’t specifically approved, but we did check)