[ad_1]
Simply six months after the flame was doused in Tokyo, the Olympics get underway again on Feb. 4 in Beijing (and 50 miles north in Yanqing and 100 miles north of that in Zhangjiakou).
Right here’s a have a look at each sport that will probably be contested on the Video games in China.
• • • • • • • • • • •
11 gold medals awarded
Alpine Snowboarding
Mikaela Shiffrin, who received a gold medal in 2014 and 2018, will go for a third, or possibly extra. She remains to be on the high of her sport, and in November she tied the career record for World Cup wins in a single self-discipline, slalom. Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and Lara Intestine-Behrami and Michelle Gisin of Switzerland will probably be challengers as properly.
Within the males’s occasions, Alexis Pinturault of France has a silver and two bronzes on the Video games, however will probably be on the lookout for gold No. 1 because the reigning World Cup general champion.
The disciplines embrace downhill, the quickest occasion; super-G, with extra turns added; large slalom, nonetheless extra turns; and slalom, the slowest and most technical occasion. There may be additionally a mixed occasion (downhill and slalom) and a mixed-gender crew slalom occasion.
• • • • • • • • • • •
11 golds
Biathlon
Take the endurance check of cross-country snowboarding and shake it up each few kilometers by having athletes cease to shoot rifles at targets. Too many misses, and skiers must take a penalty lap. Germany, France, Sweden and Norway ought to dominate the medals.
Becoming a member of the four-man, two-man and two-woman occasions is a race for only one: girls’s monobob. The primary world champion was topped this yr: Kaillie Humphries, a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Canada now representing the US. However Humphries is still awaiting U.S. citizenship to compete in Beijing.
Humphries can be the world champion within the two-woman bob, with Lolo Jones as her pusher.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
12 Golds
Cross-Nation Snowboarding
Norway dominates this sport, however the US claimed its first gold medal in 2018 when Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won the sprint relay. Diggins will probably be again in 2022. The revered Norwegian Marit Bjorgen has retired from Olympic competitors after profitable eight gold medals over three Video games.
For a lot of Individuals, who appear to embrace the granite rocks and brooms of curling each 4 years, a spotlight of the 2018 Video games was the U.S. males, led by John Shuster, streaking to the gold medal after a considerably shaky 5-4 begin. The Swedish males and Swiss girls have been probably the most profitable since then, and Canada is at all times a contender.
The deep Russian crew swept the highest three spots within the girls’s competitors on the final world championships, with now 17-year-old Anna Shcherbakova on high.
The American Nathan Chen skated a horrible quick program four years ago that knocked him out of competition. However he won his third straight gold medal on the worlds this yr, and a possible duel with Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the 2014 and 2018 Olympic champion, might be a spotlight of the Video games.
Within the pairs occasion, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong may carry the gold to the host nation. In ice dance, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia are the world champions.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
13 golds
Freestyle Snowboarding
There are six disciplines. Within the aerials and the brand new massive air occasion, skiers launch themselves off a ramp and carry out flips and spins. In halfpipe, they carry out in a U-shaped bowl, and in slopestyle, they ski down a course with rails and jumps. In moguls, they ski over a bumpy course and are judged on turns, jumps and pace.
The one occasion that’s timed as a substitute of judged is ski cross, through which skiers race in opposition to each other in teams of 4.
Canada received 4 gold medals on the final Video games; no different nation had a couple of. That crew is led by the moguls famous person Mikael Kingsbury, the defending Olympic champion.
After lacking out in 2018, N.H.L. players will be back on the Video games, assuring a star-laden discipline. America (Patrick Kane and Auston Matthews), Canada (Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid) and Sweden (Nicklas Backstrom and Victor Hedman) might be the strongest groups on paper.
China will even be taking part within the males’s occasion, regardless of concerns that the team is not nearly good enough to be aggressive.
Within the girls’s occasion, Canada and the US have received all six gold medals for the reason that sport was added, and 5 of the six silvers. Finland, Russia and maybe Switzerland are prone to vie for the bronze.
• • • •
4 golds
Luge
Germans have received 34 of 48 gold medals on this sport over time, together with seven of the final eight.
In case you’ll be able to’t keep in mind, luge is the feet-first sledding race; skeleton is headfirst.
To win in Nordic mixed, athletes have to be nice at two very completely different occasions: cross-country snowboarding and ski leaping. After years of Norwegian domination, Germany received all three gold medals on the final Video games.
Nordic mixed is the only Olympic sport without a women’s event, however that will change in 2026.
And right here’s the headfirst sledding occasion. America does a lot better right here, profitable three of the 12 golds awarded to date. (The Individuals have by no means received luge gold.) Germany, Austria and Russia are the nations to look at this yr.
It is a sport that beats athletes up, because of the G-forces and vibrations rattling the sledders.
Males bounce in “regular hill” and “giant hill” competitions, whereas feminine jumpers, who joined the Video games solely in 2018, are restricted to regular hill. There may be additionally a mixed-gender crew competitors being added this yr.
Some have stated that the highest of the ski leaping tower, the place athletes wait earlier than the exhilarating journey down, is the quietest spot at the Games.
• • • • • • • • • • •
11 golds
Snowboarding
A number of of the occasions are the identical as in freestyle snowboarding: massive air, halfpipe, slopestyle and snowboard cross (reasonably than ski cross). There may be additionally a head-to-head large slalom competitors.
One of many stars of the 2018 competitors, the American halfpipe gold medalist Chloe Kim, will probably be again to defend her title, with an look on “The Masked Singer” below her belt. The three-time gold medalist Shaun White plans to be again as properly at age 35.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
23 golds
Speedskating
Lengthy-track speedskating, through which athletes usually race two at a time in opposition to the clock, is dominated by the Dutch. They received seven of 14 gold medals in 2018 and eight of 12 in 2014. America, behind the world champions Joey Mantia and Brittany Bowe, will probably be on the lookout for a primary gold medal since 2010.
Short-track, with a number of skaters racing, and generally colliding, over a good course, offered China with its solely gold of the 2018 Video games. South Korea will even be a serious contender. Although the US picks up medals right here and there, it has not received a gold since Apolo Ohno did in 2006 and 2002.
[ad_2]
Source link
