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The Beijing Winter Olympics open in precisely one 12 months — on Feb. 4, 2022 — and would be the largest Winter Video games ever with 109 medal occasions. A sport-by-sport take a look at the place issues stand …
Alpine Snowboarding
Mikaela Shiffrin, after profitable the slalom in 2014 and the large slalom in 2018, goes into her third Olympic 12 months challenged like by no means earlier than. This season, after Shiffrin went 300 days between races following her father’s dying, she ranks third in slalom and fifth in GS going into subsequent week’s world championships.
After Lindsey Vonn retired in 2019, Shiffrin carried the U.S. program. However this season, others emerged. Breezy Johnson is the most effective downhill prospect since Vonn and Julia Mancuso‘s heyday. Ryan Cochran-Siegle ended U.S. males’s podium and victory droughts within the downhill and super-G, respectively.
Internationally, veteran Olympic medalists like Sofia Goggia of Italy, Lara Intestine-Behrami of Switzerland, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and Alexis Pinturault of France proceed to rack up podiums and victories on the World Cup.
Biathlon/Cross-Nation Snowboarding/Nordic Mixed/Ski Leaping
Jessie Diggins, who teamed with now-retired Kikkan Randall to win the U.S.’ first Olympic cross-country snowboarding title in PyeongChang, is having her finest particular person performances ever this season. She grew to become the primary American to win the Tour de Ski, a Tour de France-like stage race. Then she notched her most spectacular particular person victory in not less than three years (maybe ever) final Friday, beating a subject that included the dominant Norwegians who skipped the Tour de Ski.
The highest female and male biathletes in PyeongChang have since retired, and Norway has capitalized this season. Norway additionally has the world’s top-ranked males in Nordic mixed and ski leaping and the reigning Olympic girls’s ski leaping champion, portending one other attainable medal standings rout prefer it had in PyeongChang (eight extra medals than every other nation).
Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton
The U.S. may go one-two in a bobsled occasion for the primary time in 90 years. Kaillie Humphries, a two-time gold medalist for Canada, married an American and switched to the U.S. program after saying she was verbally and emotionally abused by a Canadian program coach. Humphries, whereas within the means of acquiring U.S. citizenship and Olympic eligibility, is allowed to compete on the World Cup and world championships stage. Elana Meyers Taylor, a medalist on the final three Olympics, eyes her first gold after getting back from childbirth final 12 months. They’ll get two probabilities for medals with the addition of ladies’s monobob.
Germany nonetheless dominates males’s bobsled. Driver Francesco Friedrich is without doubt one of the world’s dominant athletes, following his double gold in PyeongChang with two- and four-man world titles in 2019 and 2020.
Germany additionally continues to rack up luge titles, led by two-time Olympic champions Natalie Geisenberger (again from childbirth) and Felix Loch (having his finest season in a number of years) and Julia Taubitz, who simply gained the ladies’s world title. Although Germany swept the 2020 World titles in skeleton, veterans Martins Dukurs of Latvia and Janine Flock of Austria are having the most effective World Cup seasons.
Curling
The U.S. males’s crew skipped by John Shuster that took shock and storybook gold in 2018 stays largely intact and among the many medal contenders after inserting fifth at the latest world championships in 2019. Nonetheless, Shuster’s group should qualify for the one and solely U.S. Olympic spot at trials this fall.
Canada, after incomes a medal in all 10 Olympic males’s and girls’s curling occasions because the sport returned to the medal program in 1998, missed each podiums in PyeongChang. Whereas the Canadian males took silver at 2019 Worlds, the ladies dropped all the best way to eighth.
Determine Skating
One of the vital anticipated head-to-heads in 2022 is lining as much as be Hanyu Yuzuru of Japan in opposition to American Nathan Chen. Hanyu is attempting to change into the primary man to win three Olympic singles titles in 94 years. However Chen is undefeated since coming into PyeongChang as the favourite and inserting fifth, together with two wins over Hanyu.
It’s seemingly {that a} Russian takes a 3rd consecutive girls’s title. The 2018 Olympic gold and silver medalists, Alina Zagitova and Yevgenia Medvedeva, struggled since PyeongChang and have just lately been absent from competitors. A brand new group of teenagers ascended, led by three-time nationwide champion Anna Shcherbakova and 14-year-old Kamila Valiyeva. Bradie Tennell, the highest U.S. lady in PyeongChang in eighth place, regained her nationwide title in January. Alysa Liu, who gained the earlier U.S. titles at ages 13 and 14, has proven the leaping arsenal to contend for a medal however is navigating a progress spurt and training adjustments.
The U.S. once more has a number of medal contenders in ice dance, however French Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron assumed favourite standing after the retirement of Canadians Tessa Advantage and Scott Moir. In pairs, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong may ship for the host nation, however 2018 gold medalists Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot have been skating collectively just lately, fueling hope of a attainable return after three years off.
Freestyle Snowboarding
The U.S. has a bevy of medal threats, however essentially the most placing story this season has been the emergence of its girls’s aerials program. Winter Vinecki, bidding to change into the primary Winter Olympian with that first title, and Megan Nick every earned their first World Cup wins, and two extra U.S. girls made a podium among the many final 4 occasions.
The current Winter X Video games noticed the star flip of Chinese language Eileen Gu, a 17-year-old Stanford enrollee who gained each halfpipe and slopestyle in her Aspen debut. The U.S. returns 2018 Olympic medalists in males’s slopestyle (Nick Goepper) and males’s and girls’s halfpipe (Brita Sigourney, David Clever and Alex Ferreira). One other freeskiing occasion, huge air, makes its Olympic debut in Beijing.
In moguls, the skiers to beat stay 2018 gold medalists Mikaël Kingsbury of Canada and Perrine Laffont of France.
Hockey
The U.S. girls adopted their first Olympic title in 20 years by profitable the 2019 World title in a shootout with Finland, the primary time ever that it didn’t play Canada in a world championship gold-medal sport. Canada missed its probability to rebound in 2020 when worlds had been canceled because of the pandemic, however is because of host the 2021 match in April. In the meantime, the U.S. program noticed adjustments at head coach — Robb Stauber moved to teach membership hockey and was changed by Bob Corkum — and captain — Meghan Duggan retired.
NHL gamers are in line to return to the Olympics after not collaborating in 2018. Meaning the U.S. roster may embody Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel. Canada, which gained the final two Olympics with NHL gamers, may get another Olympics with Sidney Crosby, flanked by would-be Olympic rookies Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
Snowboarding
Chloe Kim, who in 2018 grew to become the youngest halfpipe gold medalist at 17, simply gained in her first two snowboard contests in 22 months, after taking a season off for freshman lessons at Princeton. Shaun White hasn’t competed outdoors of skateboarding since his third Olympic title in PyeongChang, however was planning to return at X Video games earlier than withdrawing with a minor knee harm.
The U.S. additionally has the reigning Olympic slopestyle champions. Jamie Anderson, the one feminine snowboarder with a number of Olympic golds, gained the final two X Video games titles and simply gained her first X Video games crown in huge air. Purple Gerard, the shock 17-year-old champ in 2018, faces a better problem from Canadians and rising American Dusty Henricksen, who simply gained X Video games at 17.
The U.S. has a wealthy historical past in snowboard cross, however with solely two World Cups thus far this season and no place within the X Video games anymore, it’s laborious to foretell medal challengers till after subsequent week’s world championships. American Mick Dierdorff gained the final world title in 2019. Lindsey Jacobellis, a five-time world champion and 10-time X Video games champ, final made a top-level podium in March 2019.
Pace Skating
The U.S. turnover has been placing — Olympic medalists Shani Davis, J.R. Celski and Heather Bergsma all retired after PyeongChang. Brittany Bowe is once more dominating the World Cup, hoping to change into the primary U.S. lady to win a person Olympic long-track medal since 2002. In any other case, the Dutch nonetheless rule the oval.
Briefly monitor, the U.S.’ lone medalist in 2018, John-Henry Krueger, is now skating for Hungary. The March 2020 World Championships and your entire 2020-21 World Cup season had been canceled amid the pandemic. One other worlds is scheduled for March.
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