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Whereas there are literally thousands of athletes competing within the Winter Olympics in Beijing this yr — all of whom have educated extremely onerous and reside out their Olympic desires — there are at all times a handful of athletes who steal the present and change into must-watch TV for Olympics followers.
We by no means know who’s going to shock us — U.S. followers fell in love with the lads’s curling staff, on their strategy to a stunning gold medal, on the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics — however, as we prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics beginning on Feb. 4, right here’s who it is advisable to you’ll want to watch as they vie for gold.
Maame Biney, brief monitor velocity skating
Maame Biney made historical past on the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics as the primary Black lady to compete on the U.S. Olympic brief monitor staff. Now readying for her second Olympics, she is concentrated on far more than simply making the staff, she desires a medal. With this purpose in thoughts, she says that she has created an alter ego for when she competes, “Anna Digger”. Whereas she has competed in a number of distances, she excels within the quickest brief monitor velocity skating occasion, the 500m.
Nathan Chen, determine skating
Nathan Chen hoped to have a a lot better displaying within the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, however a fall early within the competitors induced the then 18-year-old to overlook the rostrum, although he did rebound from that tough begin. After the 2018 video games, Chen went on an enormous successful streak, taking the highest prize in his subsequent 14 competitions, simply ending in 2021. Chen is doing issues on the ice that few others may even try and appears for redemption to attain his Olympics dream of gold, however he’ll have a well-recognized foe to take care of in the course of the Beijing video games, Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu.
Nice Britain curling staff
Britain has excessive hopes for each its males’s and girls’s groups, who’re persistently among the many finest on the planet for the bizarre sport that’s like bowls on ice (with a brush). Girls’s skipper Eve Muirhead is at her fourth Olympics and the staff is assured having just lately crushed reigning Olympic champions Sweden and the winners of the final two world championships Switzerland. Eve’s teammate, Jennifer Dodds, additionally has a very good likelihood within the blended doubles partnering with Bruce Moat, who’s the skipper for the British males’s staff. The British males have made a significant impression in world competitions over the past three years at each world and European championships.
Yuzuru Hanyu, determine skating
The primary Asian skater to win the Olympic gold medal in males’s single determine skating, Yuzura Hanyu is the two-time defending gold medalist in that competitors, together with besting Chen in 2018. The Japanese skater is without doubt one of the hottest within the sport, however finds himself recovering from an ankle harm he suffered in November 2021, hoping that he shall be 100% in time for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. In that case, and although the lads’s single determine skating competitors will characteristic a slew of different skaters, the rivalry between Hanyu and Nathan Chen shall be among the many most fun on the complete video games.
Scotty James, snowboarding
Australia’s Scotty James is predicted to be one of many favorites within the males’s snowboard halfpipe. The reigning bronze medalist from 2018, three-time X Video games champ and three-time world champion is understood for his red-mittens and signature trick, a change bottom double cork 1260. Gold for males’s snowboard halfpipe on the Olympics has solely ever gone to athletes from the U.S. or Switzerland, however after being the primary Australian man to medal within the occasion, he hopes to hitch fellow Aussie Torah Brilliant (Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics) as a halfpipe gold medalist.
Chloe Kim, snowboarding
One of many breakout stars of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, Chloe Kim will look to defend her snowboard halfpipe gold medal. Since her triumphant 2018 Olympics, Kim — who continues to be simply 21 — attended Princeton College and took a virtually two-year break from competitors (partially recovering from a damaged ankle). Nonetheless none of that has slowed her down, as she received her first competitors again and is the favourite to repeat in Beijing. With Shaun White exiting the worldwide stage following these Olympics, Kim is the following face of U.S. snowboarding, if she isn’t already.
Katie Ormerod, snowboarding
In 2018, three days earlier than the Olympic Slopestyle snowboard competitors in PyeongChang, Nice Britain’s Katie Omerod got here off a rail early and broke her heel bone, and her Olympics have been over. Seven operations later, plus loads of rehab, 24-year-old Katie is again in Beijing hoping for redemption as she enters the 2 Olympic snowboarding competitions of Slopestyle and Massive Air.
Mikaela Shiffrin, alpine snowboarding
At simply 26 years previous, Mikaela Shiffrin is already showing in her third Winter Olympics and, ought to issues go her means on the video games, she might change into probably the most embellished American alpine skier of all time. Shiffrin at present has three Olympic medals (two gold, on silver) and is taken into account the favourite within the slalom and big slalom occasions, whereas additionally anticipated to be a robust contender in different alpine snowboarding disciplines (she is predicted to compete in 5 occasions). Two extra medals would have her move Julia Mancuso as probably the most embellished U.S. Olympic lady alpine skier, whereas 4 extra would make her probably the most embellished U.S. alpine skier, man or lady (passing Bode Miller’s six). Whether or not or not she will be able to do it will likely be one of many largest storylines of the video games.
USA & Canada Girls’s Nationwide Ice Hockey Groups
Since ladies’s ice hockey has been included within the Olympics (beginning with the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics), the gold medal has been received by both Canada (4 occasions) or the U.S. (two occasions), with the 2 sides dealing with off within the gold medal recreation all however as soon as. And following the traditional shoot-out victory by Workforce USA to win the gold medal on the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, everybody is keen to see these groups face off once more as the 2 favorites for the gold. The USA Girls’s Nationwide Ice Hockey staff is led by Hilary Knight and Brianna Decker, whereas Workforce Canada has Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin highlighting their roster.
Because it seems, USA and Canada are in the identical preliminary group, so we’ll get a rematch between the 2 groups on Feb. 8.
Shaun White, snowboarding
Shaun White, aka the Flying Tomato, is without doubt one of the most iconic U.S. Winter Olympians within the historical past of the video games. Set for what shall be his fifth, and closing, Olympics, White appears to say snowboard halfpipe gold for the fourth time, which might make him the primary snowboarder in Olympics historical past with 4 gold medals. White has been much less energetic on the snowboard circuit for the reason that 2018 Winter Olympics and has some stiff competitors at this yr’s video games and he may have to tug out the triple cork (three diagonal flips) to win, a trick that put him within the hospital in 2013 and that was solely efficiently landed for the primary time in December (by Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, one among White’s opponents).
James Woods, freestyle skier
Generally known as “Woodsy” to his mates, British celebrity James Woods is close to the highest of the world freestyle snowboarding leaderboard, having completed an agonizing fourth within the final Olympics. He received Slopestyle gold on the world championships in Utah two years in the past, so he’ll be trying to repeat that success. James additionally competes within the Massive Air occasion, so the 29-year-old positively has a busy Olympic Video games forward of him.
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