By Kayla McCorrison
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have officially started on February 4 with the Opening Ceremony, and the Games will continue to run through February 20, when the Closing Ceremony is scheduled. The events can be viewed live on both NBC and Peacock television networks. There will be 223 U.S. athletes competing for gold medals, along with 91 other nations.
So far on the first day, viewers have been able to see alpine skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, luge, and ski jumping.
After day one, Team USA leads the figure skating men’s short program with 28 points, followed by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with 26 points, and China with 21.
Since competitions started two days prior to the Opening Ceremony with preliminary games in curling and ice hockey, day three of curling ends with wins for Italy, Canada, and Great Britain.
Team USA’s women’s hockey team is aspiring for a second straight Olympic gold, but will be doing so without assistant captain Brianna Decker, who was injured in the team’s preliminary match against Finland on February 3.
First medal events will be on February 5. Here are some Team USA favorites to watch for gold medals:
- Alpine Skiing – Mikaela Shiffrin has returned for her third Winter Olympics, and she is considering racing all six events of alpine skiing. She was 18 years old when she dominated in her first Winter Olympics, and she is expected to be a gold medal favorite.
- Snowboard Halfpipe – Shaun White is a well-known professional snowboarder, skateboarder, and musician. This is his fifth Olympic appearance, and he is hoping to become the first snowboarder to win four Olympic gold medals.
- Cross-Country Skiing – Jessie Diggins delivered Team USA’s first Olympic cross-country gold medal. She has won five races and made 22 podium appearances since then, and she is expected to continue her success in these Olympics.
- Moguls – Jaelin Kauf is a two-time medalist. She entered the Games in 2018 as a No. 1-ranked women’s moguls skier, giving Team USA its best chance of taking home a gold medal.
- Figure Skating – Nathan Chen has been nearly undefeated since the last Winter Olympics, and he is the first skater to have landed five types of quadruple jumps in competition and eight quadruple jumps across a single competition. After missing a podium finish at the last Olympics, he won the next 14 straight contests and three straight World Championships. Nathan Chen skated into the lead on February 4 by scoring a personal best of 111.71 in the men’s short program to put Team USA out in front.
- Hockey – Hilary Knight is a well-known three-time Olympic medalist, including a gold at the last Winter Olympics. She has been the backbone of Team USA’s women’s team for over a decade.
- Speed Skating – Erin Jackson became the first Black woman to qualify for Team USA’s Olympic team in long track speed skating. She entered this Winter Olympics with a career-best World Cup finish of ninth, and she won four of the first five 500m World Cup races and set a new American record in the women’s 500m. She has become a gold medal favorite, where a win would make her the first U.S. woman to earn gold in the 500m since 1994.
Here is the complete schedule of events that everyone can look forward to watching:
Photos used with permission and license from Getty Images.
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